


Rey Kenobi and the Rebellion’s Awakening

by Draco_sollicitus



Series: Damerey Hogwarts AU [1]
Category: Star Wars, Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Adjusted Ages, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angst, Brave and Headstrong Rey, F/M, Fluff, Harry Potter AU, Head Boy Poe, Kind and Funny Finn, Magic AU, Miscommunication, Misunderstandings, Possessive Ben, Prankster Rey, Quidditch is used sparsely but it's there, Smart and Quirky Rose, Sweet and Loyal Poe, Yer a wizard Rey, flangst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-19
Updated: 2018-10-06
Packaged: 2019-06-29 10:21:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 61,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15727440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Draco_sollicitus/pseuds/Draco_sollicitus
Summary: Rey Kenobi, student at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, has decided that her sixth year is going to be the best yet. She’s the Seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch team, her best friend Finn Trooper is Captain, and they’re going to win the Inter-House Cup this year. Their plans to prank the group of Slytherins calling themselves ‘The Knights of Ren’ are iron-clad, Finn has a new girlfriend, and Rey’s been granted an apprenticeship with the professor of Herbology, Maz Kanata.But trouble soon makes itself known: her childhood friend Ben Solo has been acting strangely; whispers are on the rise about a prophecy regarding Vader’s heir; and Rey can’t seem to catch a break with Hogwarts’ Head Boy.Poe Dameron, Hufflepuff, golden boy of Hogwarts, and alleged “dream boat,” seems determined to circumvent any possible mischief Rey might find herself in – she swears she can’t even take a seat at the Great Hall without the Head Boy looking right at her. Ridiculous.





	1. Beginning of Term

**Author's Note:**

> It is what it says. 
> 
> Some brief background for the universe:
> 
> **Instead of Voldemort, we have Darth Vader (and in keeping with both canons, no one knows rn that Darth Vader = Anakin Skywalker).
> 
> **Darth Vader tried to overthrow the Ministry, which at the time was led by the fearless Padme Amidala. She died dueling him, and Vader did too (although many conspiracy theorists believe he caused his own death after 'winning' the duel). Padme was grieved by the international wizarding community, as well as by her close friend and confidante (whom many believe was her paramour after her public divorce from Hogwarts professor, Anakin Skywalker), Obi Wan Kenobi.
> 
> **Ben very much acts the part of Snape in this story - he is in love with Rey, it isn't even realistic to say that it's hinted at because a lot of what he does is possessive and creepy when it comes to Rey, and it's apparent that he feels some sort of sick ownership over her. Just a heads up!
> 
> Rated T for: mild violence and cursing

Rey looked around the platform anxiously, but no sign of him – she sighed and tapped her fingers on her steamer trunk as the Hogwarts Express began to billow out smoke, the horn shrieking shrilly.

“I don’t see him.”

Rey turned and smiled at Obi Wan, who was also assessing the crowd at her side. Her guardian tucked his forefinger under her chin and tilted her head back to smile at her.

“I’m going to miss you, papa.” Rey fell back onto the old name, one she didn’t frequently use these days. Her arms wrapped around his middle, and she buried her face in his soft, brown robes. “I love you.”

“I love you so much, my flower.” Obi Wan kissed the top of her head. “Don’t be so sad. I’m coming to see you at the start of Winter Holiday before I head off.”

“I know.” Rey didn’t pull away and only held him tighter.

“It’s not too late to come with me,” Obi Wan said. “The idea of you spending Christmas alone—”

“No.” Rey shook her head and pulled away, swiping at her cheeks with her long sleeves. “No, papa, you need some alone time with Satine.” She managed to wink suggestively at him through her tears, and Rey giggled when his cheeks turned pink.

“Now, now,” Obi Wan said with faux-sternness. “Satine is a lady. And I shan’t take your crass intimations lying down.”

“Wands at first light.” Rey stuck her tongue out at him, which he copied. It was a hilariously undignified expression for the world’s most famous Auror, retired or not. Obi Wan Kenobi was nearing eighty years old, but he didn’t look a day over fifty. Rey wondered at his secret, honestly.

The train shrieked again, at the same time Obi Wan’s pocket watch rang obnoxiously. He pulled it out and sighed mightily. “That’ll be Calrissian,” he said, snapping the watch face shut. “I must be off. Have a wonderful term, my darling girl. Write me if you need anything.”

“Don’t keep the Minister waiting,” Rey teased, and Obi Wan bopped her on the nose before turning with a swish of his robes and disappearing back out towards King’s Cross.

Obi Wan really had left because he knew Rey hated being the one to leave – it was easier for her to watch him walk away, than for her to willingly leave his side. She smiled sadly at the brick wall that he’d vanished through, and then turned towards the train, lugging her case.

Finn already had a compartment for them, and was waving at her frantically through the window. “Come on, Peanut!” she saw him mouth, the words lost over the roar of the crowd and the engine warming up.

She smiled at a gaggle of nervous looking first-years on her way by, and when one’s bag ripped open, spilling Every Flavor Beans and quills this way and that, Rey knelt to help.

“Th-thank you,” the young boy stammered, and Rey waved him off, reaching over to grab a crystal that had rolled out. Her hand brushed up against someone else’s, and she looked up into a pair of warm, brown eyes.

Poe Dameron had stopped to help as well – of course he did, Mr. Perfect, and yes, that figured, there was the Head Boy badge, gleaming on the front of his robes – and he smirked at her as she stood hastily, snatching the crystal out of his grip.

“Here you go,” she said to the young boy, steadfastly ignoring Poe. “Come find me after the Sorting, and I’ll teach you a charm to make sure your bag doesn’t rip again. I’m in Gryffindor.”

“Thank you!” He squeaked, sprinting towards the train. His friends stared at Rey with equal wonderment, and then over her shoulder, most definitely at Head Boy Dameron (Big Head Dameron, more like). They turned tail and followed the first boy onto the train.

Rey grabbed her trunk again, and found that her path was blocked by Poe.

“You don’t want to miss the train,” he said, his honey-warm voice somehow entirely audible over the noise on the platform, although he spoke quietly.

“I don’t plan to,” Rey snapped, trying to step around him.

“Can I help you with your things?” He smiled at her, not a half-smile this time, but a mega-watt, blindingly bright smile. Rey returned it stiffly and shook her head, yanking her trunk after her and around him.

“No. I can take care of myself, thanks.” Poe didn’t move, so Rey rolled her eyes. “I’m not helpless, Dameron. I’m sure there’s a damsel in distress for you to save elsewhere.”

He had the gall to chuckle and raise his hands, nodding at her. He finally stepped completely out of her way, and Rey huffed as she lugged her (admittedly heavy) trunk up onto the train. She rolled it down the corridor, praying to whichever god was most convenient that Poe hadn’t followed her. A quick glance over her shoulder soothed her worry, and she trundled along until she spotted Finn Trooper’s head poking out from the compartment he’d snagged.

“Peanut!” He roared, pulling her into a hug the second she walked in. Rey laughed, and when he released her, he chucked her trunk overhead for her. Rose Tico, a tiny Ravenclaw in their year, held her arms out for Rey, and she stepped in willingly, smiling as her chin rested on Rose’s head.

“How was your summer?” She asked excitedly. “Mine was great! Paige started Auror training, and I already miss her, but you know, it’ll be nice to have my home away from home! I’m so glad you found us, I was worried you wouldn’t, I told Finn that we should put up a flare or something, something to get your attention – we must have waved for a full minute when you were on the platform, but we saw you looking for someone!”

Rose stopped to take a breath (her mind was busy, and full of thoughts, and they often made it into the air. Rey and Finn – especially Finn – found this endearing, while others found it less so), and Rey cut in.

“I was looking for Ben,” she said. Rose’s face didn’t betray any emotion, but Finn made a noise of disgust. “Come on, he’s not bad. He’s really, really sweet when you get to know him.”

“I don’t want you to take this the wrong way,” Rose said slowly. “But he’s only interested in being sweet to you.” Rey raised her eyebrows at her friend, but Rose had already turned away and was chattering to Finn about Tallie and Connix’s breakup.

“Speaking of sweet,” Finn said, as the train began to pull forward. “I saw you chatting with Poe Dameron out on the platform.”

“Chatting?” Rey wrinkled her nose. “No, he accosted me. Wouldn’t let me past, kept harping on about how I was going to be late. _Ugh._ ” She rolled her eyes and tossed her hair back, feeling the need to stretch her legs out obnoxiously across the compartment, propping her feet up on the seat that should have been occupied by Ben. “Terrible segue, by the way. I don’t know how you went from sweet to Poe Dameron.” She stared up at the ceiling, and as a result, completely missed the look Finn exchanged with his girlfriend.

“Guess I’m just terrible at conversation,” Finn said, and Rey shrugged, grinning at him when he scoffed with indignation at her and Rose’s lack of denial.

The train ride went by with little to no items of interest; at one point, Rose fell asleep with her head on Finn’s shoulder, and Rey waggled her eyebrows at her friend.

“That’s going well, then?” She whispered.

“Really well.” Finn looked particularly pleased. “Incredibly well.”

She and Finn had tried the romance thing in their fourth year, but had decided they were far too interested in continuing their long-standing tradition of pranks and adventures to threaten it with a bad break-up, so they’d mutually ended things a month in. He hadn’t dated anyone since (and neither had Rey), but he’d been entirely blindsided when Rose Tico asked him out in May, right before their OWLs.

While they rode on in silence to respect Rose’s nap, Rey reflected on how incredibly grateful she was that her friends hadn’t asked for her OWL scores – she’d gotten straight O’s, actually, with just the one E in Divination due to a very, very badly timed sneeze that ended with her examiner covered in the dust she was supposed to be reading – especially after a conversation with Ben Solo a month ago. She was worried that’s what had caused him to go back early, as he often vacationed with her and Obi Wan out in the countryside. But this summer, he’d left abruptly; and she had assumed he’d gone to Hogwarts, where his mother, Leia Organa, was headmistress.

He’d left two days after Rey had told him her OWL scores – and he’d seemingly been incredibly proud of her, and had jokingly said something about how she was “set to take over the galaxy,” but then after he’d gotten an owl from school, he’d become moody and withdrawn. He’d had those sort of fits as a child, but this one lasted a day and a half. He’d even snapped at Rey when she knocked on his door to ask if he wanted to walk to the Muggle ice cream parlor in the village nearby.

She hated to admit it, but she’d cried from the anger in his voice – she had run and hid in her room, arms wrapped around her stomach, something in her aching as though Ben’s anger had become her grief. It was inexplicable, and odd, but it wasn’t the first time something like that had happened between them. They read each other’s emotions as though they were involved in Legilimancy (something that Ben had showed remarkable promise in during Professor Skywalker’s lesson last year, apparently), and it was the nearly symbiotic relationship of their childhood that had Obi Wan suggesting that Rey gain some distance from Ben at school.

It caused more than one argument, at this point, that Rey had friends other than Ben. But it was _ridiculous,_ as Ben also had friends, and his friends were downright _repulsive._ A weird little trio: Phasma, Hux, and Mitaka had taken to calling themselves the Knights of Ren, whatever the hell that meant. It was just so strange, and Rey had a feeling it was their influence that had Ben angrier than ever this summer.

Still, when he yelled at her through a closed door, she’d reacted poorly – and ten minutes later, her door had creaked open, and Ben whispered an apology. Rey had accepted it, eagerly, all too eagerly, and they walked down to the village not long after.

But he was gone the next morning, without even a note.

Finn started to snore across the compartment, his head lolled over to rest on Rose’s, and Rey smiled at them as the dying light filtered in through the window. This was her sixth train ride with Finn Trooper, and she loved him dearly, as though he were her brother. She remembered what it had felt like as a nervous first-year. She and Finn hadn’t looked too different from the kids she’d seen out on the platform. Rey scoffed in her throat as the less pleasant memory of Poe Dameron’s interference invaded the moment.

It struck her, then, why Ben had left home – the owl’s timing logically matched the theory.

Ben was a Prefect, and while he never said it, his own hope to be Minister of Magic, just like his grandmother had been, would surely mean that he coveted the position of Head Boy. And that position had clearly gone to another.

***

Rey finally spotted her errant friend at the feast, already elbow-deep in Slytherin posturing. He was surrounded by Armitage Hux, Susan Phasma, and Arnold Mitaka, and he didn’t look over at Gryffindor once. Rose had kissed Finn goodbye – something Rey was totally going to tease him for later – and skipped off to help shepherd the first years back at the train, part of her duties as Prefect.

“I’m starving,” Rey moaned, plunking down at the table. As if on cue, food appeared, the fastest way to get teenagers to their seats. She and Finn dove in eagerly, soon engaged in a contest to see who could eat the highest number of drumsticks in two minutes. Iolo Arana, one of their Chasers, timed them, screaming out updates, and soon Rey and Finn started to shove each other back and forth, snorting and choking more than once.

“ _TIME_!” Iolo roared, and Rey and Finn raised their hands in the air, Finn’s cheeks still puffed out from his last wing. Iolo and another sixth year, Kare Kun, counted up the pile of bones.

“Rey’s the victor!” Kare cheered, and half the table groaned as knuts traded hands. “Tough luck, Trooper.”

“Rematch,” Finn demanded. His finger jabbed at tureen of spicy sauce down the table. “Who can drink the most of that without vomiting.”

“You’re on.” Rey belched satisfyingly and rose to drag the tureen towards them.

“Or, maybe you could represent your house with more dignity.” They all turned as one to look at Jessika Pava. From anyone else, the comment would have been downright condescending, but she matched it well enough with one of her teasing grins that no one got riled up over it.

“Jess!” Rey shrieked, pointing at her badge, forgetting the sauce in front of her. “Head Girl? That’s incredible!” Iolo leapt to his feet to give her a hug.

“I hope this means you’ll lead your house to an honorable year,” Kare said, jabbing her thumb over at the Slytherin table.

“I make no promises,” Jess said. “But seriously, guys, I know this is a night for fun, but could you try not to choke to death? Maybe save the competitions for after dinner, when you’re in your dorms and I don’t have to look at you?”

Rey was about to concede, when Poe Dameron materialized at Jess’s shoulder. “Did you already tell them to knock it off?” He asked. “We already have first years freaked out enough as it is.”

Rey looked down the table quickly – the newly sorted Gryffindor first-years had been the loudest to cheer her on – and then back at Poe, not bothering to hide the disgust on her face. “I don’t think they cared, Dameron.”

“That might be, Kenobi,” Poe emphasized her last name more than he should have, and Rey’s pride rankled from it. It was like he _knew._ “But all the same, you guys need to chill out.”

“Chill out?” Finn repeated, eyebrows raised. “Is that – is that still a thing people say?”

“No it most certainly is not,” Kare said, a shit-eating grin stretching across her face. “Unless it’s Netflix and Chill. Do wizard households get Netflix, Dameron? Would there be anyone who you’d want to do that with?” Poe blushed furiously, and Rey didn’t bother analyzing it. Instead, she snagged an empty goblet and filled it to the brim with the hot sauce in front of her.

“Here’s to you, Head Boy,” she said, raising her goblet in a mock toast. She drank it deeply, some of it spilling out, and she gave a three fingered salute somewhere in Poe’s direction while she did so. The table chanted _Rey! Rey! Rey!_ as she chugged, and when she dropped the now empty goblet to the table, her eyes streaming from the heat of the liquid, coughing with acid burning at her throat, they screamed and clapped loudly.

“Impressive,” Poe said, and Rey forced herself to look up and grin, wiping her face with the sleeve of her robe. He leaned over the table to smirk at her, and Rey leaned right back towards him. She wanted to – to – smack the smirk right off his face, or hex it off, she didn’t care which. Before she could do anything, his eyes flickered nervously downward, and she felt her brow furrow. _What was he –_ “But it’s still five points from Gryffindor. We’ll call it lack of respect.”

“Ugh, you foul, loathsome,” Rey began, but Finn dragged her back down to her seat.

Poe looked at her as the hubbub settled, and then he said, so quietly she could have imagined it, “That wasn’t even the spicy stuff.” He jerked his head towards a different vat and waggled his eyebrows at her before disappearing to mess up someone else’s evening.

“I’m going to make his life a living hell this year,” Rey swore, but Finn snorted and shook his head.

“Don’t waste your time on that, Peanut. Remember the real goal.”

Rey shook herself out of her revenge plotting and smiled evilly at her companion. “Dismantle the Knights of Ren,” she said.

“Break their spirits,” Finn continued.

“Destroy every last refuge.”

“Until their evil shall haunt us no more.” They high-fived and went back to their food, no one commenting on the fact that Rey stuck to boiled potatoes and cream-based items for the rest of the evening.

***

During the second week of class, Rey finally hunted Ben Solo down as he was walking out of Arithmancy.

“Oi! Solo!” She hollered, cupping her hands around her mouth. She sprinted past a group of seventh years walking down the staircase, ignoring the yellow and black scarf which would most definitely be worn by – _nope_ – “Where’ve you been?”

“Rey?” Ben smiled at her, and some of her anxiety immediately lifted. “Hey!”

“Hey?” Rey punched his arm, and they walked towards the Great Hall together. “You go missing for six weeks, and I get a _hey_?”

“Sorry about that,” Ben tugged on his long, dark hair. “Been working through some stuff. I crashed on Armitage’s couch for the last part of summer.”

“You couldn’t leave me a note to say that?” Rey hated the childish note of petulance in her voice, but she’d been – “I was worried, Ben. Hurt, even.” They walked past the group of seventh years she’d passed earlier, but she paid them no mind, unembarrassed to say, “I missed you, dumbass.”

“I missed you too, radish.” Rey rolled her eyes at his childhood nickname for her, but allowed him to wrap his arm around her shoulder. “And I’m really sorry.”

“You better be,” Rey muttered, lightly slugging him in the stomach, leaning into his tall frame to do so. His arm tightened around her reassuringly, his hand gripping her upper arm, and her head rested on his broad chest. “Wanna get lunch?”

“I’d love to get lunch with you,” Ben said, and Rey was too content with the knowledge that her friend was speaking to her again to notice how loudly he said it, how he smirked over his shoulder at one particular Hufflepuff who was staring after them while they walked away.

***

“If Organa didn’t want us to buy shit at Zonko’s, she’d forbid students from shopping at Zonko’s,” Finn reasoned as they walked towards Hogsmeade. It was the first Saturday trip of the term, and he, Rose, and Rey were walking towards the village, their cloaks still in the castle behind them. The last warmth of summer was still present, and Rey relished in the feeling of sunlight on her face while they traipsed across the grounds.

“That’s not the best logic,” Rose pointed out. “Maybe she enjoys a little bit of fun, but hopes that we would exercise enough self-control as young wizards with burgeoning moral compasses to elect not to purchase items that are dangerous, or can be made dangerous with easy modifications.”

Rey and Finn traded a look over Rose’s head before saying, “Naaaaaah,” at the same time.

“But you’re so cute when you’re being morally upright,” Finn said, managing not to sound patronizing. Rose grinned up at him, and Rey looked away so they could trade a kiss without an audience. They made it completely unawkward to be the third wheel, but she still felt like it sometimes. It was a sign of the strength of her and Finn’s friendship – and a sign of Rose’s security – that they remained as close as ever despite Finn’s romantic relationship with the Ravenclaw.

They reached the village outskirts in no time, and after they browsed items at Zonko’s, Honeyduke’s, and several other shops (their pockets laden down more and their coin purses laden down less with each stop), they stopped at the Three Broomsticks for some iced Butterbeer.

Rey waved merrily to Chewbacca, the massive bartender whom Han Solo swore up and down was part-giant, while they waited for their drinks, and he raised a large, hairy hand and saluted her. At the end of the bar, Maz Kanata was perched like a tiny pirate queen, draped in massive jewels and gold while her boyfriend waited on her hand and foot. She waved to Rey as well, blowing a kiss in her direction.

“How’s your apprenticeship going?” Rose asked, standing up on tip toe to get nearer to Rey’s ear in the loud pub.

“Really well!” Rey beamed at her, and Finn slung his arm around her shoulders while grinning at the both of them. “So well – Maz has been incredible. The other day, she said she wouldn’t be surprised if I ended up filling the position as Herbology professor – after she retires, of course.”

“That’ll be in a hundred years,” Finn pointed out teasingly. “Maz is immortal, haven’t you heard?”

Rey laughed with him, fully wishing that the rumor was true. Maz had kindly signed off on her one credit apprenticeship in Herbology this term, and she’d been helping out in the greenhouses three nights a week for the last month. They’d grown even closer as a result, and Rey knew her attachment to the old woman was more than academic, and bordering on deeply personal.

Once they had collected the flagons, they squeezed into booth near the windows. Rose and Finn were already tearing into their large pile of sweets, and Rey smiled fondly at them before excusing herself to use the restroom.

She pushed through the crowd to reach the loo, and when she returned, she had to push again, mumbling apologies left and right, mostly going ignored by the throngs of people packed inside. Of course, one person did hear her.

“No worries,” a familiar voice answered.

“Dameron.” Rey smiled tightly at him, wishing she had her tankard of butterbeer in her hand right this second. She could pretend to trip and dump it on him, and she wouldn’t even be written up for it. A solid excuse, and whatnot.

“How’s your year going?” He asked. The crowd currently wasn’t budging, and Rose and Finn looked completely content in their own little bubble, so Rey consigned herself to this fate with a sigh.

“Really well, actually.” She eyed the way he’d rolled up his sleeves, his tan skin striking against the white of his shirt. “And yours?” _Why am I even looking at his forearms?_

“As well as could be expected,” Poe laughed, seeming pleased that she hadn’t been completely snarky with him. His smile became more eager. “I’ve been working really closely with Skywalker – he thinks I have a real chance of making Auror.”

“Oh?” Rey cocked her head, finally interested in this conversation. “Yeah? That’s – that’s pretty cool, actually. I didn’t know you wanted to be an Auror.”

“Yeah, well,” Poe shuffled his feet, a seemingly impossible task in the crowded pub. “I guess most of our conversations end in demerits, right?”

Rey pulled a face at that comment – he was most likely referring to their last run-in, a week ago, when she and Finn had raced each other while surfing down the bannisters of the staircases.

  _“They move!” Poe had roared, dragging his hands through his dark curls, leaving them frazzled and completely out of their typical style. Rey was just thinking it was a nice look for him when he yelled again. “You could have **died.**_ **”**

_“Yeah, well, we didn’t,” Finn pointed out. “And we waited for them to be clear, so, no harm, no foul.”_

_“Ugh!” Rey was convinced Poe was inches away from stomping his feet. “You two are so – so – you’re like, the Danger Twins of Gryffindor. And I’m always the one who has to witness it! You’re going to get yourself killed one day – especially you!” He jabbed his finger at Rey, who, alright, had maybe been a little more reckless than Finn and had slid down face first._

_“Oh,” Rey pretended to pout at him, stepping away from Finn’s side to nudge Poe’s shoulder. “That’s not true. Not when I have you to catch me.” She was, of course, referring to two minutes ago, when a startled Poe Dameron had literally caught her as she fell off the end of a bannister as its staircase began to move the opposite direction._

_She expected him to huff something about **‘I won’t always be there to catch you’** blah blah blah, insert authority voice here, but instead: Poe Dameron blushed from the roots of his hair to his neck. _

_“Yeah, well,” he spluttered, large hand rubbing the back of his neck as he considered Rey’s statement. “It’s still incredibly dangerous! Be – be safer!” and he’d scurried off to whatever 'Preppy Kids' Rules R Fun Seminar' he’d left in the first place._

_“That guy,” Rey snorted. “What was he on about? And then he left before he even took points off.” She clapped her hands with glee and looked back at Finn, who was giving her a look of utter amusement. “He can’t take points off later, it has to be in the moment, the second they catch you! I checked!”_

_Finn’s smirk didn’t leave his face._

_“What?” Rey demanded, hands on her hips. “What is it? Spit it out.”_

_Finn released his breath in a long whoosh and laughed obnoxiously. “If you don’t know why we got off scot-free, I’m not going to tell you Peanut.”_

_And that was that._

Now, in the Three Broomsticks, Rey’s mind snapped back out of the memory when she remembered Poe was waiting for a response.

She tried to laugh it off, trying not to piss him off. “Yeah, well, our last one didn’t, and I’m hoping this one won’t either.” Poe’s smile was annoyingly bright, so she tilted her head at him and squinted. “I still have time to mess it up though, don’t I?”

“Knowing you, you’ll find a way,” Poe acknowledged, and honestly, if they were friends, this whole thing would sound a lot like her normal banter. Weird.

“Auror, though,” Rey frowned at him. “That’s really dangerous, isn’t it?”

“Says the granddaughter of maybe the most famous Auror of all time.” Poe raised his eyebrows at her, and Rey shrugged noncommittally. “I figured that’s where your propensity for danger came from.”

“Nah,” Rey shook her head. “Obi’s not got the style to pull off one of my tricks.”

Poe choked on his butterbeer, which he’d just chosen to take a sip off. He spluttered for a second, and Rey looked at him with concern. “You okay?” She asked, patting him on the back as well she could in the cramped quarters.

He turned redder and waved her off, coughing loudly. “Sorry – sorry – um – just – you call him _Obi?_ ”

“Yeah?” Rey quirked a brow at him. “It’s that or Papa.”

“Papa?” Poe squeaked. “You call the most incredible wizard of the century _papa?_ ”

“It’s like he’s a real person,” Rey snapped, suddenly irritated with Poe again. “He raised me. Why wouldn’t I call him papa?” She looked over at the window to where Rose and Finn were staring at her from the booth.

“Hey, wait, I wasn’t trying to –”

Rey interrupted him before he could finish. “I should get back to my friends,” she said coolly.

Poe looked over to her booth and then back at her, and for a second she panicked, thinking he’d invite himself over. Instead, he opened his stupid, pink, mouth with his stupid, full lips, and said, “Where’s Solo?”

“I don’t know?” Rey felt her face contort as she considered his question. “I don’t always hang out with him. He’s a year ahead, after all.”

Poe’s face offered no answers as to why he’d asked that question. “Oh, uh, I just figured, ‘cuz, you know—”

“Oh, because we grew up together.” Rey filled in for him. If anything, Poe looked more confused. Odd “Yeah, I guess he’s probably with his Slytherin friends? I wouldn't know, haven’t spoken to him in a few days.”

“Well, that’s … cool, I guess,” Poe said weakly, but Rey didn’t have the time to waste on his weird change in demeanor anymore.

“Yeah, cool,” Rey said, already starting to slip through the crowd. “Nice talking to you, Dameron. Enjoy the rest of your day.”

His meek “ _you too_ ,” was entirely lost as she pushed back through to her table. Then, she had to handle the interrogation laid out by Rose and Finn, both of whom were convinced that she’d elected to run into Poe Dameron.

She convinced them otherwise after five scorching minutes, and smoothly transitioned the topic to that of Gryffindor’s upcoming match against Hufflepuff. That caught the attention of Finn, their captain, and they talked stats for the next half hour, Rose jumping in here and there with strategy ideas.

Rey was absorbed in the conversation, but if she had looked up like Rose did, she would have seen Poe with his elbows on a tabletop across the tavern, his face still bright pink and buried in his hands while Jessika Pava and Tallie Lintra took turns rubbing his back in an attempt to soothe his embarrassment.

***

“And Rey Kenobi catches the Snitch! 320 points to 190, Gryffindor wins the match!” Kaydel Connix’s voice rang out across the stadium, and Rey descended gracefully, her hand holding the struggling Snitch aloft as the stands erupted in cheers. The second she touched down, she was met with the three Chases burying her in a hug, and Finn joined in not too long after. Matthew and Eric, their Beaters, flew in circles over their heads, roaring like lions in delight.

“Alright, alright,” Rey laughed, shoving them off. “I guess it ended better this time, huh?”

She was referring to the Inter-House Championship of last year, where they’d been neck and neck with Hufflepuff – she and their Seeker (Poe Dameron, because _of course_ ) had dove for the Snitch at the same time, but due to an illegal hit by his team’s Beater, she’d been knocked unconscious and fell thirty feet to the ground. Poe had caught the Snitch, Gryffindor had lost the Cup, and Rey had dodged mocking questions from Slytherins and some Hufflepuffs for the rest of the term, asking if she could “see _this_?” as they swerved large objects in her direction.

So yeah, today’s victory felt good. It felt _more than good._

They queued up to shake hands with the other team, and Rey grinned as the second to last player, their Keeper, grabbed her hand. “Good match, Kenobi,” Snap said, his boomingly loud voice comforting as he slapped her on the back. “We’ll get you next time.”

“We’ll see, Snap,” Rey laughed. He winked and moved past her towards the locker rooms. That just left her and Poe.

The older boy held out his hand, his gloves long since removed. “Great flying,” he commented.

“Thanks,” Rey shook his hand, regretfully realizing how warm it was, how his callouses were perfectly shaped, his fingers clever if short – _and where did that come from?_

“Are you feeling okay, though?” He asked, his brows drawn up in what must be faux-concern.

Rey tossed her hair angrily, now loose from the three buns she wore to play. “Why wouldn’t I be feeling okay?” She snapped.

“Well, you know, last time we played, you, uh—” Poe’s eyes darted around, like he hadn’t expected Rey to look _mad_ about this topic. “Well, you know. I’m just…glad it went better for you this time.”

“Oh?” Rey’s voice could cut glass. “Thanks for the check-in, Dameron. This must surprise you, but a girl can do a lot when fifty pounds of lead hasn’t just made contact with her skull,” she said primly. “Sorry that I didn’t pass out to make it easier for you to steal a win. Now, I wouldn’t expect to get so lucky again, so I hope you and your buddies got in enough celebrating last year while I was unconscious.” She gathered her scarlet robes around her and stalked off the field without another glance backwards at Poe.

Finn caught up with her in the locker rooms, a look of concern on his face. “Hey peanut,” he said cautiously. “What did you say to Poe? The poor guy looked like you’d slapped him in the face.”

“He was trying to get under my skin about last year’s Cup.” Rey hung her robes up carefully and placed them on the rack. “Made fun of me. So I told him off.”

Finn didn’t look happy with her, and Rey found that highly confusing. Poe was the _enemy._ He was law and order, a buzzkill, a goody two shoes— “Rey, he was really fucked up by what happened last year.”

Rey blinked in surprise. She definitely hadn’t expected that. “What do you mean? Hufflepuff won their precious Cup, he got all the glory, and I got called Lead Head for a month. How could that have messed him up?”

“He didn’t start that nickname,” Finn sat down heavily on the bench and glowered at her. “And he sat by your bed in the hospital wing for six hours before Organa made him leave. He was absolutely distraught – he was the first one to reach you once he landed and realized what happened. Apparently he begged Madame Holdo for a rematch, but you weren’t cleared to participate in strenuous activity until after the end of term, so she refused to budge.”

“What?” Rey froze where she was unlacing her boots. Her back rested heavily against the lockers while she considered that. “You’re – you’re sure? That’s what happened?” Finn nodded solemnly, and Rey winced, realizing now that his concern had been entirely genuine, as had the look of hurt on his face when she lashed out. “Oh, bugger.”

“I’d tell you that you need to apologize, but I’m afraid that’d make you less likely to do it.” Finn stood and cuffed her on the shoulder lightly. “You’ll do the right thing, Kenobi. You always do.”

Rey nodded, and her friend smiled at her, warmly now, and headed off to the showers. Rey stood there a few minutes longer before slamming her locker shut and heading up to the castle alone.

***

A week after their victory over Hufflepuff, Rey was outside, enjoying the cooler temperatures of mid-October. She dug victoriously in the dirt behind Greenhouse C, and came up with the vicious weed that had been spreading its toxic nonsense into the surrounding area, killing the grass and threatening the plant life past the glass walls.

“Aha,” she said, chucking it roots and all into the bucket, unwilling to let it touch the ground for another second. “Take that, you beast.” She sprayed the area she’d cleared down with some of Maz’s own Magi-pest-killer, and sat back on her haunches, admiring her handiwork. She’d pruned the bushes outside the greenhouse, and cleared the area of weeds, everything Maz had asked her to accomplish.

And, she still had a few hours of downtime, which meant she could explore some of the species in the Greenhouse in front of her, which was typically off-limits without a professor present.

“Rey?” She looked around at the sound of her name, and balked at the sight of Poe Dameron, emerging from the treeline. He was wearing his tie loose, his hair somewhat rumpled, and he had hands full of a small creature.

“What’s that?” She asked, nodding at the little brown body in his hands.

“Niffler,” Poe smiled down at the sleeping animal. “He’s been digging up holes left and right outside the Forbidden Forest, so Professor Antilles asked me to retrieve him.” Poe knelt down next to Rey and extended his hands, where the adorable little guy slept.

“He’s precious,” Rey breathed, staring at him. “Nifflers – they like treasure, right?”

“Yeah.” Poe cradled the niffler partly against his body so he could stroke him from the head to his tail. The Niffler squirmed in his sleep and turned over, nuzzling against Poe’s thumb. “The trick is to pet them like that, they get sleepy right away.”

“Can I try?”

Rey’s hand hung in the air over the small body, and after Poe whispered, _yeah,_ she tentatively stroked the Niffler the same way Poe had. “Oh,”  she said. “Oh, he’s so sweet.”

“If he was going after your jewels, you might not think so,” Poe teased, and Rey rolled her eyes at him, brushing her hands off on her leggings for something to do. When she looked over at him again – it was blinding, really, the way he sat in the light, the wind playing with his curls, stirring them out of place, his teeth white and even while he smiled at her like they shared a secret – she was surprised to see him looking at her face intently.

“Is there a problem?” She asked.

“You’ve got a little,” Poe gestured to his nose with the hand not holding the Niffler. “Right there.”

“Right where?” Rey asked coyly. Before Poe could react, she reached out and wiped her finger across his cheekbone. “There?”

Poe looked startled and then sat back on his heels and laughed and laughed. The Niffler grumbled in protest, and Poe stroked him again until he settled down. “You got me,” he said, turning to examine her handiwork. “You’ve clearly had a productive day.”

“That’s where the dirt’s from,” Rey pointed out. “Easy to tell when you’ve had a productive day while gardening.”

“Fair enough.” Poe smiled at her, and she realized this was the easiest it had ever been between them.

"Hey, Poe?" Rey said quietly, staring at the ground. She'd never been good at this.

"Yeah?"

"I'm really sorry for how I yelled at you after the match last week," Rey said, cheeks burning. "I thought you were making fun of me, and I overreacted. You were just being kind."

When he didn't say anything, she looked up at him and smiled hesitantly. He returned it, just as tentatively, his hands full of Niffler, and his face full of happiness that almost hurt to look at. "Don't worry about it," he assured her. "I'm - I'm just really glad you got back on that broomstick. Takes guts after a fall like that."

"Yeah, well," Rey shrugged. "I broke half the bones in my body, Dameron, I didn't  _die._ " He looked slightly horrified by her dark joke, so she reached out slowly and pushed him lightly on the shoulder. He rocked into it, and settled back down with an odd, quiet smile on his face.

And if they sat there for another few minutes in silence, enjoying the warm sun and the cool breeze and maybe even the company while they examined the grounds of Hogwarts, well. Rey wasn’t going to read too much into it.


	2. An Autumnal Prophecy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fall brings its own unique challenges to the students of Hogwarts.
> 
> The perils of young love, and the gathering shadow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prepare for some fluff, some angst, and some misunderstandings. 
> 
> This is the most "Damerey" heavy chapter - as in, a lot of the plot revolves around that dynamic. The next two chapters branch out more!
> 
> Warning: Rey does something incredibly risky in an attempt to garner a reaction from someone. By now, I'm sure you've realized she does many things in an attempt to get reactions from people. That's her sole reasoning for doing what she does. It's self-destructive! But ends quickly.
> 
> Warning: Two uses of the 'f' word (let's face it, they're teenagers, they'd use that word)

It was perhaps one of the last warm days of the year, and they had to spend it inside.

Rey glumly imagined the green grass of the grounds stretching on beyond the front doors while she plunked down at Gryffindor’s table. Everyone was in great spirits this Monday morning, the lingering effects of handily beating Slytherin in Saturday’s match. When they shook hands after, Jess Pava had jokingly threatened to dock Gryffindor three hundred points for Rey’s impeccable Wronski Feint – and Poe Dameron had found Rey in the crowd and threatened the exact same thing, looking much more alarmed than Jess had.

_“Why did you do that?” He demanded. Rey noticed a small Lion emblem, charmed to roar intermittently, pinned to his robes, and she jabbed it at good-naturedly. Poe swatted her hand away, blushing, and scowled at her. “You could have died, Rey.”_

_“Only like two Seekers have ever died doing it,” Rey grinned at his squawk of protestation. “Thanks for your concern though, Head Boy.” She winked at him, and he clearly had no idea what to do with that. Before either of them could say anything more, Gryffindor’s team had scooped Rey up, and held her aloft, chanting her name as the crowd bore her towards the castle. She turned and waved at Poe, who stared at her with a look of – confusion? She wasn’t sure, but soon her attention was jostled away from him._

In the present, Finn chucked a potato at Kaydel, who had implied that his Keeper skills were largely influenced by ‘good luck charms’ provided by Rose, and in retaliation, she charmed a boat of gravy to float towards him menacingly. Across the table, Matthew and Eric, the muggleborn twins and members of their team, were loudly debating the merits of Netflix versus ‘ _whatever the heck it is you wizard families do for fun,_ ’ with Iolo Arana. Rey pulled out her homework and got to work.

While her friends goofed around, Rey leisurely checked over her Potions essay. She debated removing her commentary on the negative implications of teaching a group of irresponsible teenage boys the draught of living death, but in the end, doubted Mothma would care as long as it was left to the margins. She was just about to cross out a misspelling of ‘sopophorous’ when the table around her became suspiciously quiet.

Rey looked up, quill still posed above her paper, to discover Poe Dameron standing across from her, right behind Matthew’s shoulder.

“We weren’t doing anything wrong,” she said defensively. Things had been better between her and the Head Boy, but she wasn’t sure if he was above reprimanding them for suspected misbehavior or not.

To her left, Finn shot her a look that was entirely unreadable, but Rey stared at Poe without budging an inch. He didn’t say anything for a long second, just looked back at her, his tan cheeks ruddier than normal. Finally, Connix leaned over and tugged his sleeve. “Oi. Dameron. Got something to say?”

As though he had suddenly remembered he had the ability to speak, Poe opened his mouth and said, “Yes.”

Now all of the Gryffindor sixth years were staring at him, and Rey set her quill down in the well, leaned forward on her forearms, and arched her brow at him.

“And?” Finn prompted. When Poe blinked and looked over at him, Finn gestured widely. “Spit it out, man.”

“Um.” And he was staring at Rey again. “It’s almost Halloween.”

“The pumpkins did give me pause,” Rey said, unsure of where this was going.

“Hufflepuff always throws a Halloween party,” Poe said, in very explanatory manner. He nodded as he spoke and tilted his head to the side at the end. Rey would think it was cute if it weren’t so confusing.

“Good for Hufflepuff,” Rey said. “Gryffindor usually just commits some petty misdemeanors and calls it a night.” Finn’s elbow slammed into Rey’s side, full force. “ _Hey_!” She protested. “He already knew that!” Her friend shook his head at her viciously while Iolo hid a laugh behind his hand, and Eric thumped Matthew on the back. It seemed as though he had choked on his pumpkin juice.

“So, Hufflepuff, Halloween,” Poe mumbled. His hand had found what seemed to be a permanent home on the back of his neck as he stared at the floor, his face an alarming shade of red. “You should come.” He looked up to see half of Gryffindor staring him, looked Rey in the face for about five seconds, and then stared at the ground again.

“What time?” Rey asked, already looking back down at her essay.

“Time?” Poe repeated.

“Yeah, what time does it start?” Rey cast him a disbelieving look. “If one were to go, when should they get there?”

“Eight.” Poe nodded again, ferociously this time. “You should get there at eight.”

“Cool,” Rey shrugged and tapped her pen on the side of the well to shake off the ink. “See you at eight.”

“Yeah! S-see you!” Poe headed back to the Hufflepuff table, and Rey frowned after him, wondering if those Nargles Rose was always on about had somehow infected their Head Boy.

“That was weird,” Rey commented idly.

Finn laughed for about ten seconds before saying, “No. That was him asking you on date.”

Her ink spilled over the table and Rey’s essay after her hand jerked involuntarily and sent it flying.

***

The next three days were marked by Gryffindor House demanding to know when the “Damerey” wedding was (Rey blamed Rose for the portmanteau. It was her fault. Somehow.), and Rey continually denying that Poe had intended to ask her on a date at all.

Finally, Kare sighed heavily in the middle of a Charms lesson and grabbed Rey by the arm after she threatened to Bat-Bogey Hex the twins if they so much as said the word Hufflepuff.

“Look,” Kare said, hands already raised in mock-surrender at the glare Rey shot her. “I know you think Poe has it out for you somehow, or that there’s no way he could like you _like that_ or whatever, but,” Kare looked around quickly, and lowered her voice so the other partners couldn’t hear. “I shouldn’t tell you this, but Snap told me Poe talks about you _all the time._ ”

“Because I’m always getting in trouble,” Rey conceded. Up front, Professor Erso was demonstrating how to properly cast the new charm, but both Kare and Rey had already gotten it to work, so she returned to the conversation with her full attention.

Kare was giving her an incredulous look. “Seriously. You’re the brightest witch in our year – no, don’t give me that look, you _are,_ even Rose thinks so – you’re the brightest witch and you can’t piece this together? You’re always doing crap that _should_ get you in trouble, and yet, how many detentions have you had this year?”

“None,” Rey said, fiddling with the sleeve of her robe. Her cheeks were growing pink from the dawning realization.

“Mhm. Probably no reason for that, right?” Kare nodded at her with mock seriousness. “And Snap? Why would Snap lie to me? He said Hufflepuff always laughs about it because Poe will come in most nights and sprawl out on a couch in the common room and just start talking about you.”

“What does he say?” Rey asked, against her better judgement. Okay, so she really wanted to know. Maybe. Sort of.

Kare punched her on the arm lightly. “I’m not telling. Go to the party and found out for yourself.” Rey quirked her mouth up, still unsure, but Kare tsked her tongue at her. “Nope. Come on, I’ll be there, and I’ll even help you get ready. What’s the worst thing that could happen?”

“Dismemberment,” Rey said, deadpan. “Death. Decapitation.”

“How are those last two separate?” Kare wondered, and Rey snorted, shoving her playfully, the blush not fully gone from her cheeks.

They were queued up to practice in front of the class, when Rey turned to Kare again, hating herself for the question she was about to ask. She had gnawed on the inside of her cheek in an effort to keep quiet, to squash this bizarre urge of hers to find out, but she couldn’t help it anymore. “Are you sure?” Rey asked, feeling strangely small. “You’re sure he wants this to be a date?”

“Of course he does,” Kare said, smiling kindly. “He’s crazy about you. Everyone knows it.”

Rey nodded, blushing hard again, and when she and Kare moved up to demonstrate their practiced charm, they were the most successful pair yet – the notoriously dour Erso even cracked a grin.

***

Around seven o’clock the night of the party, Rey was regretting her decision to go. Rose and Kare (and Connix at moments, as well as an already slightly inebriated Tallie who’d stumbled her way over from Ravenclaw – who was handsy with a giggly Kaydel, suggesting that they might soon be dating again) had fussed over her appearance for an hour and a half.

“I could have been napping,” Rey pointed out. “I could have used all this time to nap.”

“Did you not get sleep last night?” Rose asked, clearly concerned.

“No,” Rey muttered. “I did. I just like to nap, is all.” Kaydel snorted and fixed the cat ear headband to her hair more securely.

If Rey were feeling less anxious, she would acknowledge that they really had done a marvelous job. She looked nothing like herself – her hair brushed out to its full, wavy length, the highlights in it standing out more than usual due to some Muggle product Tallie had dumped in there; her makeup lightly applied by Kare, helping to accent the green in her eyes; her dress short and black, donated by Connix. Rey tugged on its hem, feeling self-conscious.

“This isn’t too short?” She asked nervously.

“Girl, it’s _perfect,_ ” Connix hooted, poking at her long, tanned legs. “Dameron’s going to fall right out the window.”

“Hufflepuff isn’t in a tower,” Rose reminded her soberly. “He’s much more likely to fall into the kitchen.”

All the girls tittered at that, and Rey found herself smiling bashfully, her lower lip caught between her teeth.

***

They arrived at the portrait hiding the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room a few minutes after eight, or ‘fashionably late,’ as Connix decreed it. When Finn reached up to tickle the pear, Rey forced herself to stand up straight, and tossed her hair out of her face, putting on what she hoped was a brave face.

The music was blasting from some unseen source when they walked in – Rey fought the urge to clap her hands over her ears automatically. Finn and Rose hooted in excitement and scurried off to see the chocolate fountain that had been set up in the corner – “Hufflepuff always has the best snacks!” Finn declared before disappearing in that direction – and Kaydel and Tallie walked off to dance.

Kare remained by Rey’s side, and when Snap came up and kissed his girlfriend on the cheek, he high-fived Rey in greeting.

“Hey, Lioness!” He shouted over the music.

“Lioness?” Rey repeated, her nose wrinkled. Snap roared with laughter.

“It’s what Dameron calls you! You didn’t know?” Rey shook her head, mystified. “I think I see him over there.” Rey turned to look in the direction he was pointing. Sure enough, Poe Dameron was standing across the room, leaning up against the wall, and holding a cup loosely in his hand. His shirt sleeves were rolled up to the elbow, and his hair was messier than she’d ever seen it. He was talking to a very pretty girl with red hair.

“Ugh. That’s Marci,” Snap said. “His ex.” Rey raised her eyebrows at him in surprise. “No, no – they were never very serious. Just sort of a fling that went on past the expiration date.”

“That’s harsh, Snap,” Kare said, prodding her boyfriend in the ribs. “She’s a person.”

“I know!” Snap raised his hand in surrender. “I know, hon, I know. But that’s literally all they were. Just a hook-up. They both knew it.”

“Are you sure?” Rey asked doubtfully. The girl, who she vaguely recognized from Quidditch matches and the Great Hall, was staring at Poe hungrily. He was talking to her with his gaze directed entirely at the cup in his hand. As though he could sense Rey’s eyes on his face, Poe looked up, and their eyes met.

It was always a part of romance stories that she didn’t have time for, the concept of time slowing down and the world stopping for just a second when you locked eyes with someone – but she understood it,  in that moment. Poe Dameron stared at her as though she’d done something clever, remarkable, unexpected, when in reality all she had done was show up to a party wearing a borrowed dress. But she stared back, and felt her face grow hotter from the eye contact.

Then, his goofy smile came out, like a beam of sunshine, and he waved at her excitedly across the room. “You came?” He asked – not that she could hear him, but she could see him mouth it.

“Obviously,” she mouthed back, gesturing at herself. Poe stood up straight and set his cup down next to him – but then Marci caught his arm and tugged quickly, saying something rapidly. Poe’s expression shifted, and he frowned, looking worried about something. He nodded at her, and then looked over at Rey, an apology in his face. He raised a finger at her as if to say _one minute,_ and Rey smiled shyly in response.

He looked elated, and then he followed Marci through the crowd to a room off the side of the common room.

“Well that was cute,” Snap commented drily. “And now, while you wait for your Prince Charming, I’m going to dance with my lady.” He tugged Kare to the improvised dance floor, and they began to waltz in adamant juxtaposition to the pop music blaring out from the speakers. Rey laughed at the pair and walked around the outskirts of the party, stopping at the refreshment table.

“Iced pumpkin juice?” A friendly looking third year said, holding out a cup. Rey looked at for a second, and he shook his head at her. “Don’t worry! We use cups that change colour if anything’s been added to them – like alcohol or sketchy potions.”

“That’s a great idea,” Rey noted, taking the cup and smiling at the younger Hufflepuff.

“I can’t take credit it for it,” he said, shrugging. “Dameron’s rules, Dameron’s invention.”

“That makes sense,” Rey laughed and took a sip. “Head Boy, and what not, no deviance to be expected.”

“It’s not like that at all,” the boy said, eyes wide. “Poe’s incredible – he makes us all come to a meeting before each party and gives presentations on respect and consent.”

“Really?” Rey’s eyebrows were in her hair now, she was sure.

“Yeah! He’s incredible. When I was a first-year, I saw a bunch of seventh years hitting on a girl who wasn’t interested. When one of ‘em got too handsy, Dameron fought all three of them. Didn’t even use his wand, just kicked their asses.”

“Poe Dameron got into a fight?” Rey asked, completely disbelieving.

“It wasn’t a fight,” the kid shook his head, grinning. “It was _poetry._ ”

Rey laughed at the incidental pun, and thanked the third year. She wandered around the outskirts of the room, considering this new information – a lot of things she knew about Poe clicked into place. Every time he’d ever yelled at her, or threatened to get her in trouble – she really had been risking her life or at the very least, her safety.

Maybe he wasn’t a tight-ass after all. Definitely a bit of a controlling streak, but if he was willing to get into a Muggle-style brawl over some asshats not understanding ‘no,’ well, he couldn’t be _that_ bad, now could he? Maybe she wasn’t always thinking about him because she was constantly pissed at him, she thought.

Maybe she thought about him so much because…

“Rey!” Rose Tico had emerged from the pack of sixth years in the middle of the room. “Have you seen Poe yet?”

“Yeah, but he went to go talk to Marci,” Rey said, shrugging lightly. She felt a strange fluttering in stomach in anticipation of when she would get to actually talk to Poe tonight, in light of her very sudden epiphany. God, Finn was going to be insufferable.

“Marci?” A Hufflepuff she didn’t recognize looked up at the name. “He went to go talk to Marci? Oh, that’s rich.”

“What’s rich?” Rose asked, raising her eyebrow.

“That’s just –” the girl laughed and took a sip of her drink. “That was always their code word. ‘They just needed to talk.’ And then we’d all avoid whichever dorm room had the sock on the doorknob.”

Rey felt like she wanted to throw up. “What?”

“They’ve been hooking up for over a year,” the girl said patiently. She gave Rey an odd smile. “Did you – did you not know?”

“No, I did,” Rey bluffed. To be fair, Snap had just told her. “I just—”

“Poe asked Rey here tonight,” Rose said, her hackles almost visibly rising. _Oh right,_ Rey remembered. _Her Patronus is a bear. How fitting._ “So he really shouldn’t be _talking_ to anyone else, now should he?”

“Look, I’m not trying to upset you, or anything,” the girl did look suitably apologetic. “They’re right around the corner. Go talk to them yourselves.” And with that, she disappeared back in the crowd.

“Rey,” Rose said warningly, “Don’t—” Rey was already walking towards the darkened doorway the other girl had pointed out. “Come on, let’s just wait for him out here—”

Rey shook her head and marched past the throngs of people, not stopping until she reached the doorway. She poked her head in at the same time Rose reached her side, tugging on her arm urgently.

“Oh.” Rey was glad her exhalation was lost to the music.

Marci and Poe were embracing, his arms tight around her, her face buried in his neck. She was a tiny little thing, and had to rise on her tiptoes to wrap her arms around his neck, and they were almost swaying from how tightly they held each other.

“Oh bugger,” Rose growled, but Rey was already storming away. “Rey, wait up!”

“Just leave me alone, Rose,” Rey said, waving her off. “No, really – I’m fine, I am – I just – I want to go home.”

She wanted Obi Wan. She wanted her bedroom at home, in the little village in Kent, she wanted to be far far away from this.

“Okay.” Rose smiled at her worriedly. “Okay, but Rey, listen, if he led you on, he’s the piece of—”

“He didn’t,” Rey insisted. “How could he have led me on? He just asked me to come to a stupid party, over a hundred people are here. It’s not – it’s not a big deal at all, yeah? If you see him, tell him something came up.”

“Rey.” Rose frowned at her. “Don’t go back alone—”

“Go dance with your boyfriend,” Rey urged, her smile almost real when she looked over at Finn trying to bust a move in the middle of the party. “Seriously. Before he embarrasses himself.”

“We’ll talk tomorrow,” Rose said, clearly aware that Rey wouldn’t be swayed tonight. Rey nodded and waved at her half-heartedly.

“Thanks for – for everything,” she said in a rush. _I’ve never looked this pretty,_ she wanted to say. _All your hard work, and for nothing because of course he didn’t want me, he never wanted me. But thanks, you did your best._

And then she turned and all but ran from the common room.

***

The next day, Rose showed up bright and early with two flasks of cider. “I figured we could go for a walk and skip breakfast,” she said cheerfully. “I got there early and stole a couple muffins.”

“Sounds great.” Rey smiled at her, and they departed from the castle, walking in relative silence on their way down to the Great Lake. Rey knew Rose had shown up to help her avoid even seeing Poe in the Great Hall, and she appreciated the effort.

When they set up camp on the shore, they talked about pretty much everything except for boys – they spent an amusing half hour debating the moral philosophy behind immortality, and Rey threatened to dunk Rose in the lake at one point.

“I won’t change my mind!” Rose declared, arms outstretched.

“Ugh! I can’t believe I’m friends with someone who actually thinks the ends justify the means!” Rey groaned, burying her head in her hands.

“In thought experiments!” Rose protested, but Rey ran the three feet to the lake and started splashing her all the same. Rose shrieked but then ran to join her, and they merrily ignored the bone-chilling cold of the lake for as long as they could.

“I don’t know if November first is the best day to go for a swim,” Rey said, teeth chattering. Rose nodded, and they walked out stiffly, each grabbing their wands and casting a spell to dry and warm themselves.

They gathered their things and walked along the edge of the lake for a while, heading aimlessly towards the distant hoops of the Quidditch pitch.  They were engrossed in their conversation about their upcoming Defense Against the Dark Arts examination – “Luke wouldn’t _really_ test the Unforgivable Curses on us, would he?” – and failed to notice the approaching figure.

“Rey?” They stumbled to a halt in recognition. “Where did you go last night?”

Rey flailed for an answer, but with the sudden appearance of Poe Dameron, the last person she was prepared to talk to, she came up with nothing.

“She went back to the dorms,” Rose snapped. “Not that it’s any of your business.”

“Yeah.” Poe dragged the word out. “Okay – um, but – what? Did something happen? One minute you were there, but when I went to look for you, you were just gone.” Rey still didn’t say anything, still too hurt to bother to respond. “Rey, talk to me.”

“She doesn’t want to talk to you,” Rose said angrily, drawing herself up to her full height of five feet and glowering up at Poe. He shook his head, clearly confused, and looked over at Rey. She stared off over the lake in response, and she could hear Rose saying, “I’m sorry, but I don’t think she _should_ talk to you, not after your little performance last night.”

“My _what?_ ” Poe sounded sharp.

“Your tongue acrobatics with Marci,” Rose snapped. “Don’t worry, we know all about you two lovebirds.”

“What? No, no, no, you don’t understand—"

Rey turned around quickly and grabbed Rose by the arm. “It doesn’t matter,” she said coldly. “It doesn’t. We’re leaving.”

“Rey, come on, I owe you an explanation—”

“You don’t owe me anything.” She forced herself to smile, her cheek muscles resisting the expression to the point that her face felt tight. “Really. You don’t. It’s not like we’re even friends.” Poe spluttered for a second, but she stormed past him, her arm tucked in Rose’s.

“Let’s go eat our body weight in chocolate,” Rose suggested, after they’d reached the tree line and left Poe Dameron far behind them. “Come on, you’ve had a crush, a heartbreak – now it is time to complete the cycle of cliché! We must gorge ourselves while swapping stories of woe with our fellow sisters!” Rey laughed, wiping a tear from her cheek.

“That sounds nice,” she acknowledged. “Let’s do that.”

***

As November churned onwards, Rey found it increasingly easy to get over her hurt feelings. Well – really, she found it easier to ignore them. She still had no desire to talk to Poe, and whenever he wandered over to the Gryffindor table, or walked to where she was sitting in the library or courtyard, she would gather her things and leave.

“Avoidance might not be the best policy,” Finn pointed out mildly one day. Four girls – Rey excluded – ferociously hushed him at once, and he quaked under their terrifying glares. “Right – right – he’s the devil, and we don’t talk to him.”

After word of Poe’s snub got around, Rey found herself oddly the target not of ridicule as she feared, but sympathy.

“I had a crush on Poe Dameron for years,” one fifth year sighed at her in passing. “Don’t worry, boo, he’s a heartbreaker.”

“Thanks, but that’s not what happened—” Rey said, but the girl only patted her arm sympathetically and walked away.

Rey stared after her, absolutely thrown off, and then turned to see her unwitting audience: Marci, the pretty seventh year from the party.

“Oh.” Rey blushed furiously. “I’m – I’m so sorry, this must be really awkward for you.” Marci gave her a weird look, but Rey’s mouth decided to not be friends with her brain, and it kept talking. “It’s just – there’s this, I don’t know, not really a rumor, but maybe like – ugh, there’s no—” Rey floundered and then said, in a rush, “Everyone’s been talking about how Poe broke my heart or whatever, but it’s not true! It’s totally fine! I had _no idea_ you two were a thing until the party, and I’m sorry you got dragged into this. Anyway.”

Rey shook her head and clutched her books to her chest and moved to walk past Marci. The older girl raised her hand and said, “Wait.” Rey froze, figuring if she wanted to hex her, at least she could get out of third period Transfiguration, which she was in no way prepared for, due to her recent distracted state. “Poe and I aren’t a thing.”

“What?” Of all the possibilities, this was not the one she counted on.

“Dameron and I. We – we’re friends, yeah, and we’ve been more than friends in the past, but – we haven’t done anything like that this year.”

“Oh.” Rey nodded once, blankly. “This year?”

“Nope.” Marci smirked at her. “I don’t know what you think is going on between us – but yeah. Nothing. Nada. He ended it, I don’t know, probably around the time he won the Cup last year.”

“What?” Rey wrinkled her nose in confusion.

“Mhm.” Marci nodded, eyes wide, expression suggesting that she found Rey to be very slow. Her teeth gritted in response. “He said he realized he wanted something serious. And not with me.”

  
“Oh.”

“Yeah, that’s a great vowel,” Marci said, patting Rey on the shoulder patronizingly. “Anyway. No harm done, Gryffindor. See ya.” She trotted off, and Rey forgot how to walk for a solid minute.

She was late to Transfiguration, but in the end, she blamed it on the staircases.

***

Unsure of how to handle Marci’s revelation, Rey elected to ignore it, not sharing the information with even Finn.

About two weeks after the disastrous party, she found herself walking out of the library with Ben Solo, who was in a terrible mood. She’d been seeing him less and less as he spent more time studying, and more time with his creepy friends.

“I can’t believe you ditched me for _the Knights of Ren,_ ” she said grumpily as she stomped after him. “Also, your legs are getting longer.”

“Which are you madder about?” Ben teased.

“The legs, definitely.” They playfully shoved each other for a minute, and Rey smiled, a real smile (a rarity these days). “I miss you, is all. This hasn’t been the best year.”

“What?” Ben stopped and stared at her. “Has something happened?”

“It’s stupid,” Rey said, huffing a laugh even as tears threatened to fill her eyes.

“If it upsets _you,_ it isn’t stupid,” Ben assured her, his large hands wrapping around her shoulders. “Tell me.”

“Got my stupid heart broken,” Rey sniffed, wiping at her nose. Ben stilled, but she didn’t notice, too wrapped up in her embarrassment. “It’s ridiculous, I know, and I didn’t even think he _liked_ me, and I really didn’t think I liked him, but then – I don’t even know, Ben, I’m so confused. I thought he was with someone else, and it turns out he wasn’t, but I pushed him away and now he hasn’t tried to talk to me in days—”

“Who?” Ben growled, and Rey looked up, startled.

“I thought you knew?” Rey said. “Everyone’s been talking about it, it’s exhausting. I need something else to happen so there’s new gossip.” She laughed and wiped her eyes. “I guess it’s not really a topic of discussion for the Knights of—”

“ _Who_?” Ben repeated, louder this time.

Rey stared up at him. “Poe Dameron?”

“Poe Dameron?” Ben scoffed. “He hurt you? Dameron hurt you? I’ll kill him.” The murderous look on his face suggested that it wasn’t a light threat.

“No, Ben, it isn’t like that – yeah, my feelings got hurt, but it really wasn’t his fault—”

“Nothing ever is,” Ben sneered. “Perfect Dameron, perfect golden boy.” Ben shook his head, his hair – greasier than she’d ever seen it, she realized, startled – flying this way and that from the violence of the motion. “He already took what was mine.”

“The Head Boy position?” Rey guessed. “God, Ben, I thought you were upset about that – why haven’t you talked to me about it?”

Ben stared at her for a second before visibly shaking himself. “Yeah. Head Boy. I don’t even think he has _aspirations._ What does he want with it? He’s destined for nothing.”

“I mean, he wants to be an Auror,” Rey said, not sure why she was defending him to her oldest friend. “That’s not _nothing_.”

“Auror.” Ben snorted and then scowled. “How would you even know that?”

“He mentioned it to me once,” Rey shrugged. “Wanted to talk about Obi.” She rolled her eyes, mostly for Ben’s benefit. Something felt very off about this conversation – and her instincts screamed at her to calm Ben down. “Typical fanboy.”

Ben did settle, but only slightly, at her projected contempt. “He wishes he could be like Obi Wan,” Ben said darkly. “Doesn’t mean he has to continue to take what’s mine – Head Boy, top marks, my _mother’s_ attention, not to mention—” Ben cut himself off.

“What do you mean, your mother’s attention?” Rey’s spine prickled at the rage she felt building in Ben, their dormant symbiotic relationship rising to the surface.

“I mean, my mother picked someone else to be Head Boy,” Ben snapped. The air between them simmered dangerously. “She picked _him,_ over _me,_ her son! I’m second best, even to her!”

 “It would have looked like favoritism if she’d picked her only son,” Rey said, trying to placate him before he sunk further into his mood.

“Only son?” Ben snorted. “That’s rich. She picked the son she _wanted,_ Rey. She dotes on Dameron, you know that.”

“That isn’t fair Ben,” Rey pointed out, gripping his sleeve, trying to get him to look at her. “Your mother would do anything for you. She loves you.”

“And what would you know about that?” Ben sneered. Rey recoiled as though he’d struck her.

“What?”

“I said, how would you know anything about that?” Ben loomed over her, and for the first time, Rey realized just how much taller he was than her. “How could you know that, if your _own mother_ didn’t love you? What would a nobody have to say about it?”

Rey stared at him in shock, and tears welled in her eyes. Ben continued to glower at her, rage seeming to crackle off his skin like electricity, and Rey shrank. She shrank away from a fight, completely opposite to her personality because this wound just cut too deeply.

She managed to sob, “B- _Ben_.” At the sound of his name, something cracked in his expression, and the compassion she was more used to flooded his eyes. Not wanting to hear anything else, Rey turned and fled from their alcove.

“Rey, wait—" Ben called after her, but she ignored him, wiping her eyes just enough so that she could see as she sprinted through the rapidly emptying corridors, ignoring the shouts of friends and passerbys as she sought isolation.

Once she’d stumbled onto an empty storage cupboard, she threw herself in and locked it, sobbing uncontrollably into her hands. _A nobody … your own mother didn’t love you …_

Ben’s words swirled around her head dizzyingly, and Rey choked on her tears as she tried to block them out. She cried for over an hour, and when she emerged with a headache and puffy eyes, she realized it was now half an hour past curfew.

She sniffed, wiping her nose with her sleeve, and headed for Gryffindor tower as fast as she could. Rey fixed her eyes on the ground, knowing the way back well enough, and she didn’t stop walking until she slammed into something solid at the corner that should have led her to her tower.

“Rey?”

The something solid turned out to be none other than Poe Dameron, who must be doing his duty of patrolling the corridors. _Why is it always him?_ She wondered. _Why can’t I ever run into Finn? Or Snap?_

“Dameron.” Rey sniffed, trying to edge past him. “Excuse me.” Her voice was watery and still broken, and she prayed he didn’t notice.

Of course she wasn’t that lucky.

“Are you okay?” He sounded genuinely concerned, but that just made her heart throb more painfully. Rey nodded stiffly and tried to step around him, but he blocked her path. “Oh my God – did someone hurt you?” He was angry, on her behalf, she realized, and the thought made her more miserable, made her remember how successfully she’d pushed him away, how she’d misread everything and ruined it. _Your own mother._

“I’m fine,” Rey said, and her voice cracked on the word traitorously. She didn’t answer his second question, something he caught on to immediately.

“Rey - who did this to you? Come on – you can tell me, let me help you.”

“I don’t need your help,” Rey said more angrily than she’d intended. She looked up at last and forced herself to smile at him. “Sorry, it’s just – I’m fine. I’m completely okay. Thank you, but nothing’s wrong.”

“Nothing’s wrong? You – you’re wandering the halls after curfew, sobbing your heart out, and I’m supposed to just accept that nothing’s wrong?”

Rey stuck on the detail of his first point. “If you’re going to give me a detention for being out late, then give me a detention,” she snapped. She wanted to be in bed, she wanted this night to be over, she wanted to be far away from handsome Hufflepuffs with kind eyes and soft hearts that could maybe possibly have room for a _nobody_. “Now, if you’ll excuse me.”

“Hey.” Poe’s hands came out imploringly. “I don’t want to give you a detention.”

“Yeah? Well, why not?” Rey demanded. “I broke the rules. I’m out after curfew, for no reason. I’m insubordinate – and yet, I haven’t gotten a single detention from you this year? Why _is_ that, Dameron?”

His face coloured rapidly, and Rey heaved a sigh of relief that he was angry with her. She could do angry.

But his voice was weak when he said, “I don’t … I don’t want to give you a detention if you’re upset. That’s not why the rule exists; it’s not like you were doing anything dangerous.”

“No?” Rey scoffed and stepped away from him. “If I do something dangerous, will you give me a detention, and leave me the hell alone?”

“Rey—”

She ignored him and jumped up on the banister. The ground floor was a dizzying distance away, more than two hundred meters, and she stared at the carpet in the hall below dispassionately. “Is this dangerous enough?”

“Get the _fuck_ down from there.” She turned to look at him, shocked at the actual rage in his voice. Rage – and fear. He was afraid.

“Why?” Rey said, balancing on the railing. “Why does it matter?”

“Rey, come on, you could – you could really get hurt, come on, get down.” He walked towards her with his hands raised, but she laughed wildly, an angry, hurt noise. _Nobody,_ her mind whispered, _your own mother didn’t love you._

“Give me a detention and I will,” Rey countered.

“Come on, just take my hand, don’t do this,” Poe begged, the torchlight casting an eerie glow to his handsome face. It really was handsome, Rey realized, an odd point of clarity in the murk of her thoughts, and it really was something she thought about all too much.

“Write me up.” She was too good at this game, and she wasn’t going to be the one to blink first.

“Fine!” Poe snapped. “Fine, you – detention. On Friday. With me.” His hand was inches from her own, and Rey snagged it, let his fingers wrap around her wrist. She let him pull her off the bannister, and she smiled triumphantly, a sharp, cruel smile that vanished the second her feet hit the ground.

Poe patted her anxiously, tears in his own eyes. “What the fuck?” He croaked. “Holy – are you okay? Are you okay?”

Rey leaned into it for a second, enjoying the concept that Poe Dameron might actually care about her safety, even after all she had done, and she nodded. His arms wrapped around her, and she realized with a start that he smelled nice. Very nice. Like firewood and grass and a bit of cologne. She pressed her nose into his neck for a second, and just let herself be held, her arms tentatively wrapping around him as well.

He released her after a few seconds that could have very well been an hour, fury in his face again, and Rey let the moment before pass her by, let it slip right out of her fingers. “Don’t ever do that again,” he snapped. “What were you thinking? What kind of stupid stunt was that?”

“I’ll see you in detention,” Rey said, her face crumpling again. She turned and sprinted for the Fat Lady’s portrait before Poe could say anything else.

***

Detention turned out to be cleaning the teacher’s lounge, while ancient Professor Ackbar dozed in the corner.

“What am I supposed to do?” Rey demanded, her hands on her hips. “Lift him?”

“Do whatever you need to do, Kenobi.” Poe pulled a mop and a bucket out of a closet, and pointed his wand at it. “ _Aguamenti._ ” It filled to the brim with water, and he threw the mop at her. “No magic. Give me your wand.” Rey stared at him incredulously, and his hand hovered in the space between them. With a disbelieving huff, she slapped the wand in his hand.

“I’ll be down the hall, doing some homework,” he said. “Enjoying the use of magic. Holler when you’re done.” And he disappeared out the door. It was without a doubt the most casual and dismissive he’d ever been with her, and Rey found herself highly aggravated by it.

“Fine.” She snarled, stabbing her mop into the bucket. “I grew up in a Muggle village, so joke’s on you, wizarding wonder.” Rey allowed the monotony of her task wash over her, mopping the floors thoroughly.

While she dusted the surfaces, she managed to wake Ackbar, who grumbled something about traps before violently jerking awake. He nodded at her and stumbled out of the room, ostensibly to his quarters where he could fall asleep. It made Rey laugh enough that she wasn’t even that irritated when she moved onto re-organizing the pile of books in the corner.

The sky outside was entirely dark by the time she finished, and she could see the moon shrouded in clouds as she finished up her last task. Rey dusted her hands off and stomped to the door. “Dameron!” She shouted down the deserted hallway. “I’m done!” When he didn’t respond, she stalked down to the room he’d pointed out. His things were in there, but he was not, and Rey grumbled and kicked the doorframe.

“Of course,” she muttered. “Of -bloody-course.” She realized that she had left the bucket filled with water, and she sighed, deciding to go dump it out the window, consequences be damned (Poe had her wand, after all, so it’s not like she could Banish it).

As she walked up to the doorway of the teacher’s lounge, she realized it was occupied.

Mace Windu, the Diviniation professor, was standing in the middle of the room, hands on his hips while he looked around with an appraising stare.

“Evening, Professor,” she greeted him.

“Ah! Miss Kenobi!” He grinned at her, and she smiled back. “Do I have you to thank for this?” ‘

“It was my punishment,” Rey said, laughing. “A six hour detention.”

“Six hours?” Windu whistled, low and admiring. “Musta been some stunt you pulled.”

“It was,” Rey acknowledged. It was probably that _stunt_ which had caused Poe to suddenly give her such cold treatment, she realized. He now knew what a wreck she was, and wanted nothing to do with her. Fair enough.

Windu walked towards her, smiling in his odd, mysterious way. “We miss you in class!” He said. “I know your exam didn’t go perfectly, but an E would have been more than enough to continue on.”

“I know,” Rey shrugged. “I just – I always got so sleepy in your class.” He laughed with her and nodded along.

“That’s fair, that’s completely fair. I’ll find a way to guilt you into re-joining next year, I’m sure of i—”

Windu halted and stopped, his face freezing. His eyes stared at her as though from a great distance. An eerie chill passed over Rey, and she cast a look about her, but the corridor was still deserted.

“Professor?” Rey reached out to wave in front of his face. His hand snaked out without warning and grabbed onto her tightly.

 “ _The galaxy turns around once more”_ Professor Windu said, gripping Rey’s forearm.

“Professor?” She tried to tug her arm free, to no avail. “Professor, what are you talking about—”

His eyes had grown wide and distant though, and then they rolled up into his head entirely, so only white showed. His grip tightened exponentially, and Rey shrieked and tugged again. Feet pounded down the corridor towards them, and Poe appeared at her shoulder. “What the hell?”

“Professor Windu, you’re hurting me,” Rey said, gripping her arm above the elbow and trying to pull it away.

Poe grabbed Windu’s wrist and tried to pull him off as well. “Let her go, Professor, come on, this isn’t funny—”

Professor Windu spoke again in a voice that was overlaid with something terrible:

“ _A choice will come to one who fears -- And one in turn to save them all…One to lead and one to fall. The lost child and the heir apparent… Darkness rises bit by bit - And so too the light to meet with it. Balance must be found within or they’ll surely perish._ ”

He coughed then, eyes closing. He released Rey, and she snatched her arm back, rubbing it furiously. Poe’s hand brushed over hers for a second, and she was so shaken, she didn’t bother pulling away. Instead, she allowed him to gently take her hand and pull her arm away from her body to examine it, his fingertips running up and down the sensitive skin, his eyes worried and frightened.

“I’m fine,” she whispered. “I’m okay, Poe.” He nodded, still looking concerned, and then Professor Windu coughed again, louder this time, patting his chest.

“Oh. You’re here, Mr. Dameron?” Windu smiled easily. “I was just telling Rey it was a shame she didn’t continue on with Divination. Although I suppose a smart young man like yourself also thinks it’s a load of codswallop.”

He looked down to where Poe was still delicately holding Rey’s hand. They were both staring at him, thunderstruck. “Oh, I _see._ Ah, young love! And its perils!” He winked at them and brushed past, waving an airy hand at them. “Carry on you two.”

Poe’s mouth fell open as he stared after Windu. “What the hell?” He said weakly.

“I have no idea,” Rey said, still shaking from the oddity of Professor Windu’s – “Was that an actual prophecy?”

“I think so.” They looked at each other, and Rey realized they were still holding hands. She slipped hers out delicately, ignoring the sadness in Poe’s face when she did so. “We should – we should tell Organa.”

“You’re right,” Poe nodded and jerked his head towards the end of the hallway. “After you.”

While they walked towards her office, Rey felt more and more awkward in the wake of her mild terror at Windu’s words.

“Poe?” She whispered as they rounded the last corner, and he quietly hummed at her in response. “I’m – I’m really sorry that I didn’t give you a chance to explain yourself.”

Poe tapped out a strange rhythm on the marble statue that guarded Organa’s study, and then stepped back, steadfastly not looking over at her. “It’s fine.”

“No. It’s not.” Rey shook her head quickly. “And what I did the other day on the stairs – it wasn’t _fine_. You’ve – you’ve always been kind to me, and I keep finding ways to undermine that, and I’m so, so sorry. Marci told me that you two weren’t really together, and—”

“You thought Marci and I were actually together?” Poe asked, his brow furrowing. “You thought I’d ask you to a party if I already had a girlfriend?”

“I didn’t know what to think. I saw you two in the other room at the party, and it _looked_ like you were… you know, and I didn’t mean to spy on you,” Rey confessed. “I swear to you, I wasn’t trying to be mean afterwards, I was just so _hurt,_ and…and besides, I wasn’t even sure if you even meant to ask me to the party like…like that, I guess. Even if I wanted you to.” She finished lamely, wincing at her stumbled speech.

“What are you trying to say?” Poe asked, something urgent in his voice.

“I’m saying I’m sorry,” Rey smiled at him, and she felt massive relief when one half of his mouth quirked up in response. “And I’m saying that I wish that night had gone differently.”

“I wish that, too,” Poe said, and Rey felt something shift in the air between them, but before she could say anything—

“Well, as touching as this is, are you two going to tell me the reason you knocked on my door this late at night? Or am I meant to be reviewing a piece of drama you wish to present to the school?”

Leia Organa stood in front of them, the statue gone, and in its place, a massive spiral staircase that rose into the highest portion of the castle.

Poe and Rey broke apart entirely – _when had we even gotten this close?_ Rey wondered – and stood there sheepishly.

“Well?” Leia gave them each a stony look before turning and climbing the stairs. The two exchanged one more look before following her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Will these two ever just get to talk?
> 
> As for Rey's behavior up on the banister - hopefully a reveal in the next chapter clarifies why she would do something like that (aggressively points to Harry Potter's Hero Complex and his own tragic backstory b/c hot damn that boy was always getting himself hurt to make others happy)
> 
> Thank you for all your lovely comments on the first chapter!!!! I can't wait to go through and individually comment on all of them <3
> 
> EDIT: feedback on tumblr suggests that some people might want Poe’s POV oneshot from that fated Quidditch match - anyone else? It would be a separate one shot after I finish this!
> 
> (Also, I've added another planned chapter to this because a scene in chapter three got away from me)


	3. Shadows of the Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and her friends try to decipher the prophecy's meaning, while a development occurs in Rey's abilities.

Leia sat back in her chair and examined the two nervous students in front of her. Rey had just finished reciting the prophecy, Poe quietly providing a word here or there when her voice failed her, and then they all fell silent.

And then: “Who is it talking about, Professor?” Poe leaned forward and looked at Leia beseechingly. The older woman’s fingers tapped on the desk as she considered Poe’s question, the keen light in her eyes brighter than ever.

“I wish I had an answer for you, Poe.” Leia sighed and brought a hand up to rest her chin on her palm. “But I’m completely at a loss.”

“Well, what do you think Professor Windu meant by ‘heir apparent’?” Rey asked, brow furrowed. “All that stuff about balance?”

Leia turned her gaze to Rey, now, and she shifted slightly under the strength of it. “There was a prophecy,” she said slowly, carefully. “Before either of you were born – before I was born, even, about a Chosen One who was destined to bring balance to the wizarding world -- or destruction. But most people only focused on the first half of the prophecy, especially as it spoke of finding a way to destroy death, and every promising witch or wizard who came through Hogwarts was then subject to intense scrutiny. One eventually became so obsessed with the idea of power enough to dissolve the chains of death, to save his loved ones, that he lost his mind and soul to it.”

“Darth Vader.” Poe slid back in his chair, his jaw tight.

“There was a prophecy?” Rey asked. “But – he was evil, how could anyone think he could save….anything?”

“He wasn’t always evil,” Leia said gently. “In fact, he was a very good man for a very long time. But obsession isn’t healthy, and he had some unfortunate influences in his life. The wizarding world went to war over the beliefs espoused by his group, namely—”

“That wizards were more important than Muggles,” Poe spat. He shook his head with a noise of disgust. “It was _horrible_ – I found an old document of theirs that said they wanted to – to create a magical Empire of sorts, to just subjugate all non-wizards to slavery or worse.”

“Yes,” Leia’s eyes were distant briefly before she shook her head. “But, thanks to sacrifices on the part of people like your mother, Poe,” and she smiled at Rey, who had turned quickly to stare at Poe, “And Obi Wan, Darth Vader was stopped.”

“Your mother fought Vader too?” Rey asked quietly. “I thought she played –”

“She wasn’t always a world famous Quidditch star.” Poe smiled at her tightly.

“Indeed she wasn’t,” Leia spoke again, and they both looked at her. “She was part of the Rebellion, a group of wizards who refused to accept the gains made by the Imperial Party for Wizarding Supremacy, or the Imps. Obi Wan was part of it too, Rey, while also maintaining his job at the Ministry.”

“And Padme, too?” Rey’s eyes felt round enough to fall out of her head. “Padme was part of the Rebellion?”

“My mother was the heart of the Rebellion.” Leia laughed fondly. “I was only a small child when she died fighting Vader, but she was actually fighting him and everything he stood for, for a long, long time beforehand.”

“But Windu said the galaxy was ‘turning around’ once more,” Rey whispered. “Does that mean – Vader could come back?”

“No.” Leia examined a small, dark red crystal on her desk, one that perched on top of a twisted piece of blackened metal. “No, Vader is ancient history. But – I do believe this means his heir approaches.”

Rey shivered, feeling very small. _A lost child,_ Windu had said. But she didn’t mention her new fear to Leia, only smiled at Poe who offered her his scarf, having seen her shiver.

“You two should be getting back to your dorms.” Leia turned to stare at the portrait of Headmaster Yoda, who dozed in his frame, his wrinkled skin appearing almost green. “I need to have a small talk with someone.”

“Yes ma’am.” Poe stood up quickly and waited for Rey to do the same. Rey paused before standing, staring at Leia, willing her to look at her, to help her muddle through the tangle of anxiety and fear that now coiled through her, but Leia either didn’t sense her distress, or couldn’t respond to it right now. She stood after a few seconds and walked out of the study and down the staircase in silence.

When they reached the bottom of the spiraling stairs, Poe released a massive breath. The statue rolled back into place behind them, and Rey wrapped her arms around her middle tightly, willing her heart to calm.

“Are you okay?” Poe sounded genuinely concerned, but Rey nodded miserably, not wanting to talk about it right now. “Hey – hey, that was a lot, it’s okay to not be okay.”

“I’m fine,” she said unconvincingly, staring at the deep blue carpet they were standing on.

“Well that’s too bad,” Poe chortled weakly. “Because I’m freaking out, and it would have been nice to talk about it.”

Rey laughed too and turned to look at him, but her face crumpled en route. Poe looked panicked, but Rey shook her head. “W-why was it to me?” She whispered, her voice breaking. “Why did he give the prophecy to me?”

“Probably just – just something to do with the moon, or the planets, or something,” Poe said quickly, obviously trying to assure her, and Rey shook her head against the weak comfort. “I mean, I don’t know anything about Divination, I was miserable at it, but…people who witness prophecies aren’t usually involved in them, unless they specifically invoked an oracle. And it’s not like you did that, right?”

“Right.” Rey sniffed and wiped her cheeks hastily. “No, no you’re right, it’s just –” She shook her head and spoke quickly. “Ever since I was a child, there’s been this – this thing inside of me, and it doesn’t feel right, Poe, and – it…it tells me to do stupid shit, and say mean, horrible things, and I can’t – I don’t understand it, and I feel – I feel lost, all of the time, and –”

“Hey.” Poe stepped forward, his arms open, and Rey accepted the hug, exhaling shakily as she fit her chin on his shoulder. One broad hand rubbed her upper back soothingly while he spoke softly to her. “I’m not saying what you’re feeling isn’t important because _of course_ it is, but Rey – it’s normal to feel like that. It is. I feel like that all the time, and feeling lost doesn’t mean something is wrong with you. It just means you need to surround yourself with the people who make you feel less lost. And you do that. You have Finn, and Rose, and all those Gryffindors who’d jump off the Astronomy Tower if you asked them, or even if you did it first – please don’t do that, that’s not a dare—” He added hastily, and Rey laughed genuinely, if wetly. “And I’ve never once thought of you as mean, or horrible, or stupid. You do some risky stuff, sure, but Rey, you aren’t a bad person. You aren’t.”

She closed her eyes tightly and lost herself in the embrace for a moment, the smell of his neck almost overpowering her anxiety, distracting her from the pool of dread in her stomach. “Thank you,” she whispered after a long moment. “I don’t know why you’re still so kind to me,” his arms tightened almost compulsively around her waist, “But thank you.” Before he could tell her why and spoil the fragile, soft thing growing in her chest, Rey said, shyly, “You smell really nice.”

Poe laughed and continued to hold her, and she smiled weakly at how pleasant his laugh felt, rumbling through his chest, when he had his arms around her.

Both students had their eyes closed while they embraced in the dimly lit corridor, which was why neither spotted the tall shadow detach from the wall up ahead and sweep down the hallway, brown eyes glittering in jealous anger from what he thought he had seen.

***

The first heavy snowfall came late in the third week of November. They sat in the courtyard between classes, wrapped up with scarves and gloves and extra sweaters, and Finn and Rey practiced their Charms, enchanting snowflakes to fall slower so that they could catch them on their tongues.

“Amateurs,” Rose huffed, shoving snow into three successively larger balls. “Absolutely weak.” She stacked her creations on top of each other, and bowed with a flourish.

Finn and Rey clapped. “What are we clapping for?” Finn asked curiously, not pausing in his applause for his tiny, ferocious girlfriend.

“For this!” Rose declared, pulling her wand out and tapping her snowman. “ _Nix Animatus_!”  The snowman rolled forward, bumbling over the ground, towards Finn, who shouted with delight.

“That’s incredible, babe!” He stood and picked Rose up around the middle, spinning her in a circle. “Fantastic!” He kissed her dramatically when he set her back down, and wrapped his arm around her shoulder while they watched her snowman trundle around.

Across the courtyard, a shout of “Give it back!” was heard. The trio turned to discover the source of the ruckus, Rey rising from her bench and setting her books down as she gripped her wand tightly – Armitage Hux had taken a second year Ravenclaw’s quill and was dangling it tauntingly over his head while Phasma and Mitaka jeered. The young boy, whose round, chubby face was contorted in frustration, looked close to tears.

“Oi!” Rey shouted, already walking forward. “Give it back, Hux.”

“Or what?” He sneered.

“Or I’ll give you detention.” Jess Pava had appeared miraculously, and was scowling intensely at Armitage and his cronies. “Now, Armitage.” The red-headed boy shoved the quill back in the Ravenclaw’s hands.

“We were just playing around, Pava,” he snapped. “No harm done.”

“Mhm.” Jess arched an eyebrow at him. “Try not to throw our house’s reputation too much in the mud, Armitage. Who knows. You might need this young man’s recommendation one day.” She turned and smiled kindly at the boy. “Can I walk you to your next class?” The boy nodded in a shy but eager way, and walked with Jess away from Armitage.

The older Slytherin girl winked at Rey when they passed, and she absolutely ignored Armitage’s taunt of, “You’re just as bad as your boyfriend, Pava! Dameron’s rubbing off on you!” The entendre was not missed by anyone over the age of fourteen in the courtyard, judging by the collective gasp.

Jessika didn’t miss a beat. “Detention the next three Saturdays, Armitage!” She said calmly, turning around to smirk at him.

Rey meanwhile was torn between absolute delight at Jessika’s smooth apathy towards Armitage’s power and privilege (his father being the highest ranking member of the school board), and a feeling that she didn’t quite recognize. It snarled a little bit, ripping along her gut and her heart in equal measure, almost clawing at her throat as a corner of her mind whirled and writhed at Armitage’s reference to Jessika’s ‘boyfriend’ – _clearly he was kidding, he had to have been kidding, why do I care if he’s kidding or not_ –

Jessika turned on her heel and followed after her new friend, leaving Rey in the torment of her thoughts. It had gotten quiet in the courtyard after Armitage’s display, and really the only sound left was him ranting about “ _Wait til my father hears about this_!” Finn nudged Rey and nodded at Hux, whose robes had fallen open in his rant. Around his neck was a large, ostentatious necklace, that ended in a peculiar symbol – it looked like a fleur de lis, wrapped in an circle. Rey shrugged, and they turned around before they drew Hux’s attention back over to them.

They returned to studying Rose’s snowman, and Rey said, her voice oddly high-pitched, “We should make it follow him all day, make fart noises whenever he talks.”

“That’s brilliant!” Finn roared, grinning at her and clapping her on the shoulder.

Rose was peering into Rey’s face though, and when Rey turned to her, eyebrows raised, and shoulders tight, Rose smiled briefly. “Jess doesn’t have a boyfriend,” Rose said serenely.

“No?” Rey said.

“Why would it matter?” Finn asked obtusely.

“She’s dating my sister,” Rose shrugged. Finn quirked his eyebrow at Rey and shrugged, not noticing the bizarre combination of embarrassment and relief that crossed Rey’s face. Then Rose squatted down and studied her snowman carefully. “I think we could probably wrangle a few charms to make your dream a reality, Kenobi. Come down here and help me.”

And in the end, it was a highly satisfying prank, albeit one that ended with Armitage Hux drenched in icy, melting snow while he howled for Rey Kenobi’s head as she slid down a bannister and out of reach.

***

“I think I’ve read something about that,” Rose said one night after dinner. They were all crowded in the library, pouring over the prophecy Rey had finally shared with them. Her friends had responded with incredulity and intense interest – although Rey suspected Rose had a bit more interest in what exactly she and Poe were doing in a darkened corridor together all those weeks ago – and now they were trying to piece it together with some of the books in the public section of the library.

“About the Imps’ secret agenda?” Rey rubbed her eyes tiredly and went back to the parchment she’d dug out of the archives. “I can’t believe they’d leave it lying around somewhere for someone to pick up and put into the Hogwarts library.”

“No, seriously.” Rose frowned and tapped the page. “It was in a footnote in a textbook Ackbar had us read, back in fourth year when we learned about the civil war.”

“You paid attention in Ackbar’s class?” Finn asked incredulously. “How did you not fall asleep?”

“Because your snores were too loud to allow me to,” Rose said primly. Rey snorted at Rose and nudged her encouragingly, telling her to proceed. “Anyway. So, it was in that chapter on the infiltration of the Ministry, how they were trying to prop up crappy politicians and pass them off as conservatives, you know, with typical anti-Muggle integration platforms.”

“The section on miscegenation and its critics!” Rey remembered, smacking the table triumphantly. “The most vocal critic was Dooku, right? He gave a five hour speech in front of the Wizengamot about the need to disintegrate any inter-marriages and the need to classify muggles and muggleborns as separate and lesser races.”

“That’s foul.” Finn pulled a face and sat upright. “I don’t remember that at all, that sounds like that would have pissed me off.”

“Again, you were asleep,” Rose reminded him patiently. “It’s not your fault, Ackbar can be a bit dry, and the textbook was admittedly thick. So—at the bottom of that section, there were footnotes about the Imps’ trying to back Vader’s push for not just the dissolution of Muggle-Wizard marriages, but also to imprison and ‘re-educate’ any wizard or witch who married a Muggle.”

“That’s disgusting,” Finn repeated, eyebrows raised high on his head. “That’s absolutely—”

“But the thing is,” Rose continued with the speed of an oncoming bullet train. “The thing is – they had a secret society, and – and – the symbol, it looked like—” She pulled out a quill and drew quickly on a spare piece of parchment.

It was a fleur de lis, wrapped in a snake eating its own tail.

“Is that an ouroborus?” Rey whispered, tracing her finger around the outside of the circular symbol.

“Yeah,” Rose tapped her finger on the paper, and the girls traded a look.

“Creation out of destruction,” Finn said thoughtfully, his chin in his hand. Then, he startled quickly. “But we saw that – the other day, Rey, remember? Hux was wearing something that looked just like that!”

Rey’s eyes widened as she stared at the page. “It also means cyclical,” she gasped. “Oh god – is Hux the heir?”

“Let’s not be reductive,” Rose cautioned gently. “For all we know, he just went through Daddy Dearest’s ‘Best of Wizard Supremacy” Fall Fashion collection at home and pulled it out.”

“Fair enough,” Rey allowed. “But still.” She gestured over the page with a scoffing noise.

“We can put him on our suspect list,” Rose agreed. “Also, I think I know where to find that book the footnote mentioned. _Late Twentieth Century Political Negotiations of the Dark Arts_ …” She frowned softly. “And something about … the justice system, I don’t remember, but, it should be –” She looked over her shoulder at the dark, cordoned off section of the library.

“The Restricted Section?” Rey stared over her shoulder as well. “We don’t have a pass to get in there, and how exactly are we going to explain this to a professor.”

“We could always…break in,” Rose said carefully.

Finn and Rey stared at her. “Are you supporting breaking the rules?” Finn asked, aghast. He rested a large hand on Rose’s forehead. “Have we – Merlin’s Beard, is it actually contagious?”

“Ha, ha,” Rose said, shoving Finn’s hand away. “Very funny. And sometimes, to get the truth, you have to break the rules.”

“Hear hear!” Rey said grinning. “So, how are we going to do this?”

In the end, Rose was sent up with a laundry list of questions for the librarian, Madam Solusar, an ancient and near-sighted archivist who was thrilled to speak to one of her favorite students. Rey and Finn tiptoed back towards the Restricted Section and hopped over the rope.

“Do we need the author?” Finn whispered, the noise oddly amplified in the dusty, dark shelves.

“Bugger.” Rey swore and raised her wand. “Uh – Accio Politics Book?” She tried, focusing on the title Rose had given her. There were several very loud thumping noises, and Rey and Finn both swore as books started flying off the shelves and hurtling towards them.  

Then, a large and dusty tome entered their aisle and careened towards them. Finn caught it with a triumphant, whispered, “Yes!”

“Who’s back here?” A familiar voice called from further into the stacks.

“Dameron,” Finn breathed, freezing with his hands full. They turned and ran quietly for the other side of the Restricted Section, where the regular golden light of the library shone. “Wait, wait, wait, crap!” Finn set the book down carefully on the floor, and Rey moaned, remembering that the Restricted Section was enchanted with an alarm to start screeching like a banshee if a book was removed without authorization.

“Hello?” Poe was getting closer, and Finn tugged at Rey’s arm.

“We could just tell him!” She pointed out quickly. “He – he wouldn’t necessarily give us detention, Finn, he could help us—”

“Dameron? Help us break the rules?” Finn stared at her like she’d grown three heads. “Fat chance, Rey, come on!” He grabbed her hand, and they sprinted for the exit, clearing the rope gracefully. They snuck back to their table and gathered their things, swatting dust off their robes and each other’s hair.

Rose spotted them and finished up her conversation with the librarian before rushing over to gather her things as well. They headed for the exit, and Rey threw one last look over her shoulder.

Poe Dameron was standing at the edge of the Restricted Section, _Late Twentieth Century Political Negotiations of the Dark Arts_ tucked under his arm, and Rey’s breath caught when their eyes met across the now vacant library.

***

The next day, a few days before the end of fall term, Rey walked into Defense Against the Dark Arts to discover all the desks had been Banished, and a dueling circle drawn in the middle of the floor.

She queued up with Finn and Rose and joined in the quiet speculation of what they were going to do that day. The door opened, and Professor Skywalker, or Luke as he preferred, walked in, his graying sandy hair as disheveled as always, books clutched in his hands. Behind him were Ben Solo, who was still on shaky terms with Rey after their fight at the beginning of November (although they were trying to mend things in the name of their lifelong friendship), and Poe Dameron. The Head Boy made eye contact with Rey, and just like the previous day, an odd shiver passed along her spine, curling into her gut.

No, Rey definitely didn’t want him to look over in her corner again.

_Please look over here again._

“Alright, class.” Ever soft-spoken, the respect all the students had for their professor showed as the gathered sixth-years stopped their conversations immediately and waited for him to continue. “I thought our last lesson before the holiday could be on non-verbal spells,” Professor Skywalker said, smiling at them in that oddly detached way of his.

He launched into a quiet explanation of the theory, and then smiled at them again. “But that’s old man-talk, I suppose.” They all laughed nervously, except for Rey, who had entirely followed along. “I’ve brought my two strongest students from my seventh-year class – Poe and Ben. They can explain it how it works better than I can.”

Poe leaned against the chalkboard while Ben started to talk.

“You’re given a distinct advantage when you don’t shout out your spell. You enjoy the element of surprise,” he said calmly, and Rey saw a couple girls in her year giggle behind their hands. While some hated Ben on sight, most girls her age did not find him wanting in the least. “As I’m sure you’ve noticed, all your spells work better with extreme intent and focus. Let everything else fade away, and focus entirely on the spell you want to cast. It should be the only thought, the only word you know as you attempt to use it on your opponent.”

He stepped back, and Poe cracked his neck and straightened up slightly; and now the same girls giggled, plus a few more (and some boys) elbowed each other, straining their necks to catch a better glimpse of the handsome older boy. He didn’t move from the chalkboard as he spoke. “That’s definitely one way to do it. But, you might find that kind of focus difficult. I’d say it’s more like flying. You know your spells inside and out, at least, the ones you needed to get into this class. Remember that it’s muscle memory, and the magic that is inside of you, the magic that makes you able to pick up a wand and cast spells – it doesn’t depend on your voice. It depends on who you are. The magic and the spell, those are part of you. It should be as easy and normal as breathing, to just release that spell and let it happen. Don’t fight it – just envision the way it always felt to cast that spell, and you could find some success there.”

“That would certainly work _some of the time,”_ Ben said waspishly, glaring at Poe. “But—”

“But, I asked you both because of your very different philosophies,” Luke reminded gently, his hand raised towards his nephew. “Could you both do a demonstration, please?”

Ben rolled his eyes and then rolled up his sleeves. He held his long, dark wand aloft and focused on a spot across the room before sweeping the wand up and to the side.

Rey knew what it was before it happened, as though she’d heard him say the word – a lingering effect of their odd connection from childhood. A thundering crack was heard, and the ceiling shifted and rumbled threateningly.

“Very good, very good,” Luke chuckled, waving his own wand. The dust re-settled, and whatever damage Ben’s spell had caused clearly healed back up. “And Mr. Dameron?”

Poe grinned and walked forward, running a hand through his hair once before lifting his wand. Rey swore she saw a girl in the audience swoon.

To be fair, she might have swooned too, were she a person who swooned.

When Poe waved his wand, a dazzling display of golden fireworks erupted mid-air above the class’s head, and everyone oo’ed and aww’ed in tandem, before everyone erupted into applause. Rey untucked her hands from her pockets and joined in the applause. Poe’s eyes found her in the crowd, and he grinned at her, cheeks flushed. He bowed his head and turned pinker when she, on some bizarre instinct, cupped her hands around her mouth and did a short cheer.

“Very nice, Poe,” Luke complimented, and the Hufflepuff stepped back out of the way. “Now, we’re going to try. Trial by fire – find a partner, and we’ll practice in front of each other two at a time, if only because that will reduce the number of accidental injuries.” They all laughed anxiously and queued up after breaking into partners.

Rey partnered with Finn – and they were fifth in line. Very few people got anything to even happen during their round, but Luke looked increasingly delighted with every attempt. His classroom was the sort of place where even failure felt like learning – he always had a helpful tidbit or suggestion to give for everyone who tried.

When it was Finn and Rey’s turn, they bowed to each other, and then pretended to exchange fisticuffs like Muggles while the class laughed. Luke chuckled as well from his perch up on the desk, and Ben rolled his eyes affectionately, the shadow at Luke’s shoulder. Poe smiled encouragingly at Rey and flashed her a small thumbs up – as though he had sensed she was actually nervous and more than a little shy about performing in front of everyone. She walked to her spot in the circle feeling much better.

“You first,” she shouted to Finn, who grinned at her. She stood calmly, her wand loose in her hand, as Finn’s face furrowed and his wand came up to point in her direction. _I bet that asshole’s going to use the Tickling Hex,_ Rey thought to herself. Finn waved his wand, and while she didn’t feel anything, an impressive amount of sparks came off the end.

“Very good, Mr. Trooper!” Luke looked absolutely thrilled. “That’s the best yet!” Finn grinned sheepishly and shuffled his feet. “What were you trying to do?”

“Tickling Hex!” Rey answered at the same time Finn did, and the whole class erupted into laughter.

“You two duel often?” Luke guessed, grinning slyly. They nodded and then Rey raised her own wand.

“Remember to focus, Kenobi.” Ben spoke from behind Luke, and Rey spared him a single glance, feeling a little irritated that he’d call her out and no one else. She spotted Poe at the same time though, and remembered what he had said.

Just like flying. She took a deep breath and summoned the memory of the last time she’d performed this charm. While she could still see Finn, she felt the rest of the classroom fall away, Ben and Luke and Poe and all, the roaring in her ears bubbling up and covering everything before there was just the idea of –

A bubble, diaphanous and fragile, appeared around Finn’s head. Rey lowered her wand and beamed while everyone including Finn cheered.

Luke waved his own wand, and the bubble vanished. “Not the most effective way to win a duel, Ms. Kenobi,” he said serenely. “But delightful, all the same. You’ve won the round.” Rey curtsied jokingly, and on her way out of the circle, she saw that Poe looked deeply impressed – and Ben’s expression was entirely unreadable.

A few other people got their charm or hex to work with varying success – none to the degree that Rey had, to her surprise – and then they were partnered randomly, Luke calling out the pairings from his spot up on the desk.

Finn and Rose went toe to toe, and she managed to zap him a little bit, causing him to shriek and curse good-naturedly. Iolo and Connix managed to start a small fire somehow, while Phasma and Snap looked like they’d rather trade actual blows than cute charms.

Rey groaned audibly when Luke announced her partner – “Armitage Hux!”

They stepped into the circle, and Rey noticed that Ben was standing a little taller than before, almost glowering at Hux – weird, considering they were friends. Poe was whispering something urgently to Luke, who waved his student off airily. “Go ahead, you two.”

“Ladies first,” Hux sneered. “If you can handle it, Kenobi.”

Rey rolled her eyes and prepared herself as she had before, the same strange sense of purpose rolling over her.

 _Steleus,_ she thought.

Armitage sneezed violently, and then again. “A Sneezing Hex,” Luke said admiringly. “Good work yet again, Ms. Kenobi.”

Ben laughed, the source of the sound obvious, and unmissed by Armitage, who continued to sneeze violently. “Here,” Rey said, laughing lightly. She waved her wand, and Hux stopped sneezing, and she was about to apologize to him when he turned to her with almost palpable fury in his expression.

“Expelliarmus,” he whispered, flicking his wand. Rey’s wand flew across the classroom, where it was caught by someone in the class.

“You cheated!” Rey said angrily. “He cheated,” she repeated, when no one else said anything. “He said it out loud!” Luke studied her impassively, and Rey rolled her eyes and sighed angrily. “Not that I expect anything better from a boy who needs daddy to fight all his wars.”

Poe smirked, but Rey’s comment did not do wonders to improve Hux’s mood. “You little witch,” he snarled. Rey shook her head and prepared to go grab her wand, but her dueling partner had other ideas. “Confringo!” Armitage roared, and several people around her screamed.

Luke dashed forward before Armitage had finished the word, but Rey felt an eerie sense of calm descend over her. She strode forward, hand raised, and as the curse blasted from Hux’s wand, she accepted the energy of it, the strange blue light hurtling towards her – the same curse that had once killed twelve Muggles with one casting – and gathered it, imagining it as cloth she could gather around herself. With a sweeping motion, she directed it up towards one of the back windows of the classroom -  the spell rebounded off of her and towards the new target, shattering the glass and reducing it into a fine powder.

Without thinking, Rey shoved forward with her right hand, imagining Hux flying backwards – and he did. The red-headed boy soared backwards through the classroom, over the heads of their peers, and slammed into the chalkboard, slumping to the ground unconscious.

It had taken less than five seconds, but Rey felt as though she had run a marathon distance. She fell to her knees, panting, confused and frightened. As reality caught up with her, her hand flew to her mouth.

“Class dismissed,” Luke barked. “Now. Go.” Her classmates thundered past her, and Finn ran up into the circle, hand extended. Rey almost grabbed it, but Luke shook his head. “Sorry, Mr. Trooper. I need to talk to Ms. Kenobi.” Finn gave Rey a reluctant look, but she shook her head at him, and he turned and walked out as well, whispering _good luck_ under his breath.

“I didn’t mean to,” Rey choked out the second the door had slammed shut, all her classmates on the other side of it. “I swear Professor, I didn’t know I could do that—”

“You aren’t in trouble.” Luke’s expression was thoughtful and carefully neutral. “Ben. Could you please take Armitage Hux up to the Infirmary Wing? Tell Madam Kalonia that he isn’t to be dismissed until the headmistress speaks to him.”

“Luke,” Ben protested. He was hovering at Rey’s shoulder, she realized with a start, his hand extended protectively over her. “Come on, send Dameron—”

“I’m sending you,” Luke said firmly. “Go on.” Ben made an angry noise and squeezed Rey’s shoulder reassuringly. She didn’t respond and continued to stare at the floor. “Mr. Dameron, if you could wait outside?”

“Yes sir.” Poe didn’t fight back the way Ben had, but she felt him linger at the door for a moment before he exited, the door shutting quietly behind him.

Instead of asking her stand up, or trying to move her, Luke sat down next to her with a heavy sigh. “So.” He said quietly. Rey didn’t look up from the floor, still in shock from what she had done. “I’m guessing that was new?”

“Yes.” Rey blinked, trying to snap out of it, with no such luck. “I didn’t mean to hurt him, Professor, honestly, I didn’t—”

“He meant to hurt you,” Luke pointed out, and Rey looked up. “There isn’t a damn thing wrong with protecting yourself, Rey. Hell, it’s the name of the class.”

She smiled at Luke’s cursing. “I guess so.” She went back to studying the floor after a moment, Luke’s blue eyes a little too bright to look into.

“This might sound entirely out of nowhere, but,” Luke cleared his throat. “Have you considered being an Auror, Rey?”

“An Auror?” Rey wrinkled her nose and laughed bitterly. “Rules and I haven’t always gotten along. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a rule I wasn’t a little tempted to break. You can ask Dameron, he knows that better than anyone else here, and he’s right outside.”

“Poe Dameron always speaks very highly of you,” Luke told her firmly. “No matter your – creative interpretation of rule systems. But no, Rey – there’s more to fighting the Dark Arts than enforcing the rules. It’s about a strong sense of right and wrong – something you often demonstrate – and an ability to use your head and get control of a bad situation – which you just did. Armitage’s spell today could have hurt more than just you, and instead, you re-directed it without thinking twice. That isn’t something to dismiss. I’d say it’s something to celebrate.”

“I don’t know,” Rey said slowly. “I just don’t think – I don’t think I’m cut out for that kind of thing.”

“You’re the most promising witch I’ve met in years,” Luke said, and Rey squirmed at the praise that she didn’t fully believe. “I mean it. You have the highest marks in your year, Rey, your O.W.L. scores were simply ridiculous – you’d be an asset to the Aurors, or the staff here at Hogwarts.”

She looked up again at that. “I really don’t think I’m cut out to be a professor, Professor.” Rey grinned and shook her head. “No, I think Hogwarts will be much better off when I’m not in it, causing trouble every five seconds.”

“I don’t like to see you talk down about yourself like that.” Luke scratched his beard slowly. “Someone with your heart, Rey, and your mind. You could serve the wizarding world very well.”

“Yeah, well,” Rey shifted uncomfortably, exhaustion starting to creep in at the corner of her vision. “There are other ways to help the world.”

Luke nodded, and she could tell he wasn’t done with this topic, but he was letting it go for the time being – and he also didn’t comment on her very specific avoidance of ‘wizarding’ world. Rey didn’t see the difference, really, between wanting to help wizard, and wanting to help Muggles. There shouldn’t be a difference, as far as she was concerned, and the careers Luke had mentioned separated her from one group – a group that she had roots in.

Rey stood shakily, with some help from Luke. “You should head back to your dorm room,” Luke said kindly. “I’ll send a note to your afternoon professors. I suggest some chocolate and a nap.”

“I second that notion,” Rey laughed, and she walked towards the doors.

“Rey?” Luke called after her. She turned to look at him. “What you demonstrated today – that would have manifested very powerfully when you were a child. Perhaps it’s something to speak to Obi Wan about?” Rey nodded, feeling very miserable suddenly, and headed out the doors.

Poe was leaning on the wall outside, and he straightened up the second he saw her. “You okay?” He asked, and Rey nodded, her lip quivering. She wasn’t, of course, but she couldn’t tell him why she was suddenly so upset – the piece of information Luke had just so casually given her, the piece of her past that might explain why her parents had suddenly not wanted her, why they had –

“Oh hey,” Poe dug through his bag and Rey was briefly distracted from her inner turmoil. “I uh—” he cleared his throat. “I got something. If you uh, needed something to read over break. You going home?”

“No,” Rey shook her head. “No, Obi Wan’s going to Norway over the holiday. I’m staying here.”

“Gotcha.” Poe smiled at her distractedly and then pulled out what he was looking for. “Here, this uh – looked…interesting.”

He held out the battered, dusty copy of _Late Twentieth Century Political Negotiations of the Dark Arts._

“Why, uh…why?” Rey asked, feeling as though she’d been hit by the Hogwarts Express. She took the book delicately and hefted it in her hands.

“Seemed like something you might be interested in, you know?” Poe’s smile was teasing, but also somehow serious. “I have a pass for the Restricted Section, I’m Luke’s research assistant this year. So, uh…yeah, I’ll need to return it, so don’t…don’t lose it?”

“I’d hate to ruin your perfect library record,” Rey teased. Poe blushed and looked down, and Rey felt an actual stirring of amusement. “Oh my God – really? That’s really what you’re worried about?” Poe grinned sheepishly, and Rey laughed, before a wave of exhaustion threatened to knock her over.

“Whoa,” Poe looked at her nervously as she swayed. “Are you – do you need to get back to your dorms?”

“Yeah.” The misery from before came crashing back.

“Can I—” Poe cleared his throat, and Rey saw that his hands tightened into fists at his sides. Odd. “Can I get anyone for you?”

Rey looked at him with relief. If he’d offered to walk her back himself, she certainly wouldn’t have been upset or turned him down – but she would have been on guard the whole time, more than a little aware of the strange tension that erupted between them, the tension that was returning even now.

“That would be lovely.” She sagged against the wall, feeling a little faint. The look of alarm on Poe’s face suggested she didn’t look too great, either. “Could you get Finn?”

“Of course.” The anxiety didn’t leave his expression, and he looked down the corridor for a second. “I’m a little worried you might pass out – uh – one second.” He pulled out his wand and flicked it carefully. “Expecto Patronum.” A silver shape emerged from the end of his wand, a fully corporeal Patronus. Rey stared at it in amazement. “Finn. Rey’s still at Luke’s classroom. She needs you.” Poe nodded at his Patronus at the end of his statement, and it loped down the hallway gracefully.

He leaned next to Rey on the wall, and she found herself instinctively tilting into him, feeling heavier and sadder than before. They stood in silence for about a minute, Poe studying the portrait across the hallway as though it were the most interesting thing he’d ever seen.

“Has your Patronus always been that?” Rey asked, her curiosity winning out even in her exhausted, miserable state.

Poe tilted his head at her and then laughed shyly. “You were expecting a badger? Yeah. Casted it the first time in fifth year DADA. Luke made me cast it again because he swore it wasn’t right. But it’s always been that.”

“Huh.” She stared down the corridor, where his Patronus had vanished with the message. “I’ve just never…met anyone…with that Patronus.”

“Yeah?” Poe leaned into her fully for a second, and the warmth of him flooded through her like much-needed sunshine. “It’s weird for a Hufflepuff, I know. But hey, I guess that means I’m special, right?”

“You already were,” Rey whispered, staring at the floor. Her cheeks flushed in mortification – was she _drunk_? She’d never even had a sip of firewhiskey before, but there was no other explanation for how easily _that_ had fallen out of her mouth.

Poe pulled away, and her heart staggered in mortification because of course he didn’t like her, not anymore (if he ever actually had).

And then his arm wrapped, warm and heavy, around her shoulders, tugging her into his chest. Rey sniffed and curled into the embrace, her head easily fitting against his neck. She yawned slightly, a strange sort of sleepy heaviness coming over her with no way of crawling back out from underneath it.

“You going to fall asleep when you get back?” Poe asked, kind, sweet laughter filling his voice.

“You know it.” Rey’s nose brushed against his collarbone, and she swore she felt him stiffen.

“Know what else I know?” Poe asked, his voice also drowsy in a way she’d never heard before.

“Hm?”

Whatever he knew, he didn’t get to say, for pounding feet raced up the corridor.

“Rey!” Finn had arrived, and Poe released her reluctantly. Rey stepped away from him just as reluctantly, regretting leaving his warm side, but Finn grabbed her and hugged her tight, which felt nice too. “Thanks, Dameron, I got it from here.”

“Of course.” Rey smiled at Poe sleepily, and he returned it quickly. “If you ever need to talk,” he whispered. “Just ask, okay?”

Rey pursed her lips to stop from crying at his kindness and nodded, already tucked securely under Finn’s arm. They wasted no time in walking away, towards Gryffindor tower and her warm, cozy bed. Finn handed her a piece of chocolate which she munched on thoughtfully, her misery somewhat abating from her quiet reflection on Poe Dameron’s Patronus. She wasn’t lying – she’d never met anyone else with it.

And, he was right. It _was_ odd for a Hufflepuff to have a lion for a Patronus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I've upped the chapter count again.  
> Yes, more angst is on the horizon.  
> Yes, Rey still doesn't realize how much a certain Hufflepuff likes her.  
> Yes, Ben is creepy.


	4. Winter Holiday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With almost every student gone for the break between terms, Rey and Finn conduct some research, and have a lovely dinner with the headmistress. 
> 
> (And, Rey's feelings for a certain Hufflepuff grow exponentially, as she learns more about his true self)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mild warnings here: Rey and Finn briefly discuss the murder/suicide of Padme/Vader that was referenced in the first chapter's beginning note. Don't want to catch anyone off guard! It's quick, but it's there.

With fall term ending, and the soft hush of snow falling over the grounds at Hogwarts, the majority of students packed their things and prepared to return home for the winter holiday.

Rey made her way down with her classmates, bundled up in her warmest robes and mittens; she wasn’t going to get on the Hogwarts Express and leave, but she was going to say farewell to Rose and a few of her friends. The exams they had just completed, and their growing workload in the middle of the sixth year, meant that she hadn’t had much cause to go outside these last few weeks, and she relished the fresh air while trudging through the feet of snow that had fallen during the first two weeks of December.

Once they arrived, she spotted friends from all four houses on the platform, hugging and shouting at each other while they raced to find the best spots on the train. Finn pulled Rose away after Rey had hugged her tightly, and she smirked to herself and waited for them to finish whatever _important business_ it was that they had.

Finn was staying over break, just as Rey was. Her guardian would be in Norway, visiting his friend, who happened to be a lady; she was a diplomat who he had worked with in the eighties, and had just reconnected with. And Finn, who spent summer interims with a variety of his friends, had no wish to return to his former foster home and its gloom and solitude.

He was whispering something in Rose’s ear, who was pinker than ever before seen, when Rey heard someone clearing their throat behind her. She turned and saw Poe Dameron, standing there in a well-fitting grey sweatshirt.

“Hey,” he greeted her softly. Rey blinked and looked at him more closely; he had slung a duffel bag over his shoulder, was wearing blue jeans, and – was that –

“I wasn’t aware you were a big football fan,” Rey said. She immediately regretted it, as it wasn’t a proper greeting, and sounded more than a little snippy. Poe seemed to take it in stride though, and glanced down grinning at the Manchester United emblem on his sweatshirt.

“Oh yeah,” he laughed openly, and Rey was caught mildly off-guard by the whiteness of his teeth when he smiled at her. His eyes crinkled at the corners as he rubbed the side of his neck. “Huge fan. My dad and I always try to see a match together at least once a year.”

“You’ll want to be careful where you wear that in London,” Rey pointed out. She returned his smile, and found that it wasn’t at all difficult to do so. “You might start a brawl.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Poe countered, slipping his hands into the front pocket of his sweatshirt. His smile didn’t diminish in the slightest – and she felt oddly warmer, standing in the snow with the cold wind coming in off the lake, ignorant to both conditions as she found herself gravitating towards the Head Boy.

“I don’t believe you,” Rey said, astonished. “You’ve brawled over football?”

Poe shrugged nonchalantly. “What happens in Liverpool, stays in Liverpool.”

“Poe Dameron, caught up in a fight?” Rey smirked at him. “That doesn’t sound very…prim or proper.”

“What makes you think I’m either?” Poe asked coyly. Rey felt flushed, the heat creeping up her spine and spilling into her cheeks. “No one said I was perfect, Kenobi.”

This was uncharted territory. Rey felt strangely light-headed, and she – she giggled. That couldn’t be right. Poe looked equally surprised. She spoke before he could comment on it. “You aren’t perfect? You are aware that’s an anagram of the title you wore for two years?”

Poe blushed then, and Rey sensed that they were back on solid ground, back to their norm, where she was the one who teased him, and he was the one who floundered in how to respond. She would be lying if she said she hadn’t found the reverse to be thrilling, that her heart wasn’t pounding in her chest so hard she was worried he’d be able to hear it somehow.

He opened his mouth to speak, but she was already saying, “Big Christmas plans?”

“Uh, nah.” Poe blinked and seemed to redirect whatever he was saying. Rey wanted to apologize, but he didn’t look irritated. “Me and my dad usually stay up ‘til midnight watching these stupid movies from when he was a kid, and we eat our weight in tamales. Oh, yeah, and then we set off an absolutely ridiculous amount of fireworks. You?”

“That sounds like a marvelous plan,” Rey observed, and Poe grinned. It looked shy, again. “And, I’ll be here, obviously.” She spread her hands out ironically and laughed. Poe frowned, though, so she felt the need to explain. “It’s just me and Obi, and he’s out of the country for the next month or so.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that,” Poe said. He shifted awkwardly, and the train screamed a warning next to them. “Crap. Um. Here, I uh,” he pulled his duffel bag to the front of his body and dug around for a second before pulling out a small parcel wrapped in a pretty handkerchief. Poe held it out to her, and Rey took it, completely dumbfounded. “That’s for you.”

“Poe,” Rey said quietly. A group of second years sprinted down the platform and between them, and Rey took a unconscious step back to give them room at the same time Poe did – and they stepped right back together when they had passed. “I – I didn’t get you anything.”

It never would have occurred her to do so, but the thought of it now made her want to cry.

“That’s fine,” Poe said quickly. He was bright pink now, and he dragged a hand through his curls, knocking them out of their usual style. “It’s so fine. It’s like, completely fine. Why would you? I mean – it’s cool.” He coughed nervously, and Rey realized that he was anxious. She knew she made him uncomfortable sometimes, but anxious? She tried to smile brightly to reassure him, but her mind was reeling too rapidly for her to be sure it looked convincing.

Poe winced slightly and looked at the ground, while the train’s whistle let out its final warning. He sighed as though in quiet acceptance, his head turning towards the scarlet engine, but before he could walk away, Rey, completely on impulse – _always on impulse, foolish, headstrong girl, what is wrong with you_ – darted forward.

She placed her hand on his arm, right below his shoulder, and leaned in, tilting her chin up just the slightest bit so she could press her lips into his cheek.

Rey, having never kissed anyone before in her life, was worried suddenly of a whole host of things she’d never even considered: were her lips too dry? Too wet? Was the kiss too long, or too short? Did she smell okay? Did she ever smell okay? Why did Poe have to smell so good, like a bonfire mixed with the color green, and a dash of something she could never quite name?

She stepped back, having demanded these and a million other questions of herself in the three seconds it took to kiss Poe Dameron on the cheek, and carefully held his present tight in both hands while she waited for him to say something. Anything.

Poe looked like she’d shoved him off the Astronomy Tower.

“Oi! Dameron!” Snap was standing on the train, his hands cupped around his mouth as he hollered at his friend. “It’s going to leave without you!”

Poe shook himself slightly and turned in Snap’s direction, his eyes somehow still trained on Rey. “Be right there!” He bellowed. Then, he smiled at Rey, and it was as though the sun had burst through its oppressive cloud cover of the last month and melted every memory of being cold clean away. “Wait to open that,” he instructed, reaching out and squeezing Rey’s hands. “And—"

“Dameron!” It was Jess this time. “Get your arse on this train!” The engine had begun to pump billowing steam into the air, and Rey laughed nervously.

“You better go,” she urged him. “And, um…Happy Christmas.” Poe gave her one last reluctant look before nodding.

“Happy Christmas, Kenobi.” He hesitated for another moment before reaching out to carefully tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, the piece that always fell out of her buns and into her face no matter what she did. He left his hand there, his palm warm and bare against her cheek – and then he was jogging to the train, which was starting to pull forward. Poe leapt onboard, hauled in by Snap, and he disappeared from sight for a second.

Finn materialized behind her as quickly as though he had apparated, and he placed his chin on Rey’s shoulder while they watched the train pull away. Poe Dameron appeared in a window a few seconds after he had vanished from sight, and he waved at them both.

“Oh Peanut,” Finn sighed as he returned the wave. “What are we going to do with you?”

“Hush.” Rey waved and smiled at Poe, and then a few of her friends, Iolo and Kare, and then Tallie and Connix, and they kept waving until the train had departed fully from the station and their sight.

***

“This can’t be right.” Rey slammed the book shut, and then winced at the cloud of dust it inspired.

“No need to be cruel to the books,” Finn said idly. They were tucked out of sight in an alcove on the fourth floor. Rey had brought some cushions, and Finn had swiped some cozy blankets from the common room, and together they had convinced the House Elves to give them some extra sandwiches and pumpkin juice to snack on while they searched for answers.

Rey sighed and shoved the copy of _Late Twentieth Century Political Negotiations of the Dark Arts_ away from her, giving it an apologetic pat. “I really should be nicer to it, considering Poe took a risk even lending it to me.” She made a face at the dusty, boring book. “Maybe we should have waited for Rose to do this.”

“Are you kidding me?” Finn asked through a mouthful of tomato and cheese. “She was so impressed with me for wanting to do extra work over the holiday. I got so –”

“Ugh.” Rey raised her hand to stop him. “I don’t need those details, Trooper.”

“Fair enough.” Finn waggled his eyebrows and went back to squinting at old copies of _The Daily Prophet_ they’d been able to scrounge up from the archives in the library. “What’d you do to get that book from Dameron anyway? Can’t imagine you asking him for it.”

“I told you, he just gave it to me.” Rey huffed and held a hand out for a newspaper. The copy Finn handed her was dated August 15, 1980. _Vader Followers Defile Emblematic Peacetime Statue_ the headline proclaimed. “He didn’t ask me for anything in return.”

“Mhm,” Finn said, flicking through his paper. “…just your heart.”

“Do shut up,” Rey said primly, kicking her friend lightly. He snorted and shoved her back, and they returned to flipping through the grimy old newsprint.

Rey reached a paper with the headline _Quidditch World Cup ‘78 Ends After Three-Week Long Match_ , and turned to the inserts inside. She frowned looking at the Education section.

“Hang on,” she muttered, her finger tracing a story shoved to the bottom left of the page. “Can you hand me the paper from June 1 of 1978?” Finn nodded and tossed it lightly in her lap. Rey pulled her legs up underneath the blanket and leaned back against the cool stone wall. She flipped to the same section, and saw a larger article on the same subject that had caught her eye. Rey skimmed until she found the date she was looking for.

“Sorry, just – do you have the May 15, 1978?” That paper joined the other two in front of her, and this one had a front page story.

_Hogwarts Professor Declared Missing Following Messy Divorce._

In the moving picture, a handsome man with a scar over his eye smiled bashfully at the camera before jokingly ducking behind a petite woman who looked painfully familiar. Rey’s breath caught in a lump in her throat as she recognized the beautiful face that smiled out from several pictures on the mantle in Obi Wan’s living room, from frames lining the hallways, and from one, single, faded photograph that he carried with him at all times.

“Anakin Skywalker,” Rey whispered.

“What about him?” Finn asked, setting his paper down and frowning.

“He - he went missing in ’78,” Rey said, her teeth worrying at her bottom lip. “There are all these articles on him, tracing his final days, but then…nothing. But a year later...” She frowned and shook her head. “I’m probably just overreacting, but listen to this article.”

Rey shook out the May 15 edition and cleared her throat before reading.

_“Anakin Skywalker, aged 26, has been declared missing after he vanished from his post at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry last week._

_This comes as no surprise to several of his former co-workers, who have described Skywalker as “moody,” “depressed,” and “obsessive” in the days leading up to, and following, the announcement of his divorce from prominent political figure, Padme Amidala. One co-worker, who wished to remain anonymous, says ‘Ani was always a pretty intense person, but after Padme requested the divorce, he became almost violent. It was all downhill for them after the twins were born.’_

_Perhaps this co-worker is referring to the violent manner in which Skywalker’s children entered this world five years ago: a disastrous, complicated childbirth that nearly claimed the life of Amidala, then aged 25._

_A Healer present at St. Mungo’s that fateful day in 1973 describes the birth as a ‘perfect storm.’ He went on to say that he has never been met with a similar challenge: Amidala, at just seven months pregnant, had been caught off-guard by an attack from Dark wizards following the commands of the underground figure known only as Lord Sidious. While she successfully fended off the attack, a Dark curse placed upon her thinned her blood and forced her into early labour, threatening her life._

_Skywalker had been described as ‘distraught’ and ‘apoplectic’ when he received news of the attack. He didn’t leave his wife’s side, says the Healer, not even when his children took their first breath and needed to be held._

_‘That kind of obsession,’ the man recalls. ‘It’s not healthy. The bloke didn’t even want to hold his children, born a month premature, mind you: his only concern was his wife.’_

_The youngest professor to date at Hogwarts, Skywalker’s obsession following his now ex-wife’s brush with death became evident in his research. An anonymous source tells the Prophet that the young man ‘actively sought a way to escape death, to the point he forgot how to live.’_

_The pressures of this obsession last to this day, as the Wizarding World searches for a man who might not want to be found._ ”

Rey finished reading and set the paper down softly.

“I had no idea Organa had gone through all that,” Finn said thoughtfully. “That’s terrible.”

“It is,” Rey agreed. “But, Finn. She told me and Poe, that night in her office – the last prophecy that talked about Balance and power and light and dark – it caused a man to go insane. She said he lost his mind trying to protect the people he loved.” Finn gave her a strange look when she trailed off, so Rey took a deep breath and finished her thought. “Leia said it was…Darth Vader.”

“You don’t think.” Finn grabbed the paper and studied the picture of Padme and Anakin from a happier time. “No – Organa – Professor Luke - their father couldn’t be –”

Rey shushed him, realizing how loud they had gotten. “It’s a year later that Vader starts making headlines,” Rey said, pulling out the papers to prove it. “And he never showed his face again. He wore that creepy outfit.”

“If there had been an accident,” Finn wondered aloud. “If – if he’d gone too far in his research, maybe if he was studying immortality, he would have attempted alchemy, or something that could dangerously backfire…”

“Vader killed Padme,” Rey whispered, horrified. Her hand covered her mouth, and her eyes filled with tears for Leia, and Luke, and Obi, who’d all lost someone that day. “And then he died right after – they’ve never been able to tell if it was a lingering effect of the Auror’s spells, or something Padme cast before she died, but what if – oh God, Finn, what if he –”

“Killed himself,” Finn finished for her. “When he realized he murdered the only person he’d ever loved.”

They sat in silence for a horrible, cold moment before continuing with their thoughts.

“The prophecy was referring to Vader then,” Rey said. “And the new one refers to his heir. So, do we know anyone who would let obsession destroy them like Vader did? To do whatever they had to do to get what they wanted, even if it meant hurting the person they said they loved?”

Finn coughed and looked away, but when Rey pressed him to explain, he refused to answer.

***

On Christmas morning, Rey and Finn woke up to the otherwise empty Gryffindor Tower, and promptly exchanged presents.

“You shouldn’t have!” Rey declared gleefully, pulling out the massive stack of items from Zonko’s. There were dungbombs, boxes of belch powder, fake wands, and – “Wet-Start Fireworks!” Rey crowed. “Oh, this is going to drive the Knights of Ren _nuts._ ”

“No peace for our enemies,” Finn declared lazily, reclining in his chair. He wore a paper crown that he’d claimed from the cracker they’d opened before starting on presents. “My turn?”

“Your turn!” Rey agreed, chucking his box at him.

“A sweater,” Finn said, yanking out the crimson item from the box.

“Yours is covered in holes,” Rey protested. “And there’s more in there!”

Finn was decidedly more excited about the boxes of sweets from Honeyduke’s, the regurgitating toilet (“This one’s for Armitage,” Finn declared evilly), and the stack of Chocolate Frogs.

Around eleven a.m., they heard a knock at the door of the common room. They sat up, squinting and covered in chocolate, from their semi-nap on the couches.

“I didn’t know people knocked in this castle,” Finn mumbled, wiping his mouth with little success. Rey rolled her eyes and stood, going to open the door.

“Han!” She shrieked, jumping out from the entrance and down into the arms of one of her favorite people. He roared in laughter and swung her around cheerfully before setting her down. Tall and handsome, his face barely betraying his almost sixty years, Han Solo grinned at her before hollering at Finn through the hole in the wall.

“As odd as it seems, you two are the only ones who stayed here this winter, so my wife’s invited you both to dinner!” He announced. Han tapped Rey on the nose. “Totally secular, nothing to do with the day, of course.”

“Of course,” Rey said, smiling at him.

“We’ll be in the Great Hall at two!” Han ruffled her hair, and she pretended to be irritated. “If you can stand up by then, Trooper!”

“Careful, old man, or I’ll hex you,” Finn warned from his spot on the couch. Han seemed entirely unthreatened by that idea.

“I’ll sic Chewie on you,” he countered gruffly.

“Will Chewbacca be there?” Rey asked excitedly. The massive wolfhound was another one of her favorite people.

“You know it, kid.” Han winked at her and saluted before turning on his heel. “Two o’clock! Secular dinner!”

Secular dinner turned out to be a massive arrangement of roast chicken, potatoes, and bread, game pie and gravy, served with trifle and treacle tart for dessert.

Han and Leia cheerfully filled them in on all the random happenings of the castle in the last week without the students present – “Han found a poltergeist the other day, if you’d believe, an actual poltergeist,” “I think I scared it more than it scared me; the thing caught me after a rather large dinner and tried to come up behind me. Let’s just say…I blew it away.” – and Finn and Rey gave their mandatory reports on their fall term.

“Luke tells me you were particularly successful in non-verbal spell casting,” Leia said quietly to Rey while Finn and Han roared with laughter over a Quidditch story involving a Quaffle to an unfortunate region of the body.

“Eh,” Rey muttered evasively. “It was…whatever.”

“He didn’t seem to think so,” Leia said, but she let it rest after that. Leia seemed a bit more wan today, but Rey had a feeling it had to do with Ben electing to spend the holiday with Armitage Hux and his family – Ben had celebrated Chanukah with his parents at the beginning of the month, and claimed that he didn’t need to be around for the interim between terms because they wouldn’t need him.

Rey was deeply unhappy with Ben’s dismissive attitude towards his parents, and didn’t understand in the least why he was trying to create conflict where none was needed. He’d been convinced by Hux, Phasma, and Mitaka that Han and Leia ‘had it out’ for him, and that he needed to time away to ‘sort things out.’ To Rey, an orphan whose life had been utter misery until the age of seven, it was an impossible thing to understand, how easily Ben was willing to throw away his parents’ love.

Her thoughts towards Armitage were less frustrated, and more furious. The snobby Slytherin’s growing influence on Ben was deeply concerning for both Leia and Han as well; especially Han, who, as a Muggle, was the very thing Armitage’s family swore to loathe for all eternity.

Her darkened thoughts aside, the dinner passed by with general merriment and a great deal of good food. It came to a conclusion around nine, and after a round of toasts that grew increasingly ludicrous (Han gave a toast to hemorrhoid cream, something that Leia smacked his arm for), Organa raised her goblet and the other three joined her. “To wonderful company, warm and full bellies, and happy memories of the past and today.”

“Cheers to that,” Finn said, clinking glasses with the headmistress. “And here’s to me and Rey trying not to burn anything down until at least Epiphany.”

“Going for the record then,” Han noted, nudging Rey’s goblet with his own. She laughed and drank to the sentiment, and after they had hugged the headmistress and her husband good night, she and Finn stumbled back to the Tower, bleary-eyed and full, warm and peaceful.

“Have a good Christmas, Kenobi?” Finn asked, yawning.

“Mhm,” Rey hummed at him. They hugged tightly before heading off to their respective dorm rooms, and they laughed at each other’s sluggish footsteps as they dragged up the staircase in their bloated, exhausted states.

Rey’s bed was pushed up against the window, something none of the other girls ever fought her for due to the drafts that blew in on cold winter nights just like this one. She curled up under her blanket and looked up at the stars, hanging like drops of precious metal in the midnight blue sky. Rey released her breath through her nose and burrowed deeper under the covers, smiling to herself at the lingering warmth inspired by her dinner with the Solo-Organas.

A strange feeling tugged at her heart, and Rey let it slide over her as she nestled, warm and safe in her bed. Her nose tingled, and she closed her eyes briefly, frowning, trying to place it. She’d had a wonderful Christmas, and she’d been lucky enough to see Obi a few weeks ago, an event arranged by Leia – but…something felt…missing.

Rey opened her eyes and looked at the gibbous moon, the longing in her heart not fading as she neared sleep. She realized who she wished she had spoken to today – besides Obi, which was the obvious answer – Rey pulled out the small, wrapped parcel from underneath her pillow, which had been hiding there since she’d received it a week ago.

Sitting up carefully, she untied the knot at the top of the patterned handkerchief, which upon closer observation looked more like a small wrap or scarf with splotches of scarlet and gold. A small note fluttered out before she pulled away the fabric entirely to expose the small object it was obscuring.

_So you can have green with you, wherever you go._

_Yours,_

_Poe_

Rey read the words over and over again, her cheeks flushed and heated by the end of the first reading. She mouthed it softly, and then giggled to herself – deeply relieved no one else was here to see her doing this – before setting the note aside gently, almost reverently, and opening the parcel fully.

It was a circular, silver locket, and when she picked it up, she felt the faint hum of enchantment around it. She looked at the note one more time before clicking the locket open.

“ _Oh,_ ” Rey gasped.

Inside was a miniaturized terrarium, with tiny, exquisite succulents blooming, their rich green contrasted by the delicate, fragile blossoms that burst in pink and blue and orange. Her finger met with invisible glass when she attempted to touch the plants inside, and she wondered, her heart pounding in her ears, how long it had taken Poe to put this together.

She put the necklace on, carefully clasping it behind her neck, and held the locket in her hand for one moment longer before allowing it to rest a few inches below her collarbone. Rey glanced down to admire how it looked against her skin, and her hand went to it, her thumb stroking over the chain softly while she thought.

It was an intimate gift which confused and delighted her, and it was so particularly perfect for her. Rey didn’t think she’d ever received a more wonderful present in her life. She blushed deeper and looked back up at the moon, drawing her knees up to her chest, one hand still on her locket as she pondered the gift and the boy who had given it to her well into the night.

***

A few days after Christmas, Rey came down with a cold. Just a cold, of course, nothing major.

Finn huffed at her and told her to go get some medicine – “I’m fine,” Rey protested thickly, the congestion making it difficult to believe or understand her, “Don’t be ridiculous.” – and when the cold took a turn for the worse, Rey hacking and burning up for hours on end, he dragged her physically to the hospital wing.

“And what do we have here?” The nurse asked, giving them a bored look.

 “Happy Christmas, Madam Kalonia,” Rey mumbled, an arm wrapped around her stomach. Finn rolled his eyes at her.

“She’s sick,” he informed the nurse needlessly. Kalonia raised her eyebrows at him. “Flu. She refuses to admit it, though.”

“I’m just under the weather,” Rey protested, her voice thick and congested. She shivered miserably. “Is it always this cold in here?”

“In bed,” Kalonia said, jabbing her finger at a cot. “Now.” Rey mumbled some more protests, but Finn half accompanied, half dragged her over and then hefted her onto the mattress. “Blankets.” Finn obliged when Rey wouldn’t, tugging them into place over Rey’s lap.

“No, ‘m fine,” Rey said, waving a hand. Her vision swam alarmingly. “No need to fuss.”

“Mhm.” Kalonia was already prepping a compress. “Now you, out, while you’re still healthy.”

“Yes ma’am!” Finn saluted smartly, winked at Rey, and then toddled off and away.

“So much for loyalty,” Rey hummed, settling back against the pillows. She shuddered compulsively, and the blankets that had felt soft a moment ago now felt scratchy and horrible on her skin. Rey shoved at them, and Kalonia pushed her hands out of the way and waved her wand over Rey’s body.

She tsked disapprovingly. “How many times are you going to show up in my hospital wing on the verge of death?” Kalonia asked, winking at her. She slapped the warmed compress against Rey’s chest, and she immediately felt the relief seep through her pores.

“Until you ban me permanently, I suppose,” Rey answered cheerfully (as cheerfully as possible with all the phglem). Kalonia rolled her eyes at her.

“Where’s your young man?” Kalonia asked, after she’d propped Rey up on some pillows and handed her a stinky concoction to sip.

“Finn?” Rey asked blearily. “He was just here, wan’nit he?” She felt drowsy from whatever was in the brew. If her mind would just…speed up a little…she could probably pick out what herbs were in it.

“No, not your fellow hell-raiser.” Kalonia managed to look disapproving and fond all at once, a very particular skill of hers. “That nice young man, the Hufflepuff.”

“Oh?” Rey blinked. “Huffle—d’you mean Poe?” She sank further into the pillows and smiled. Why was she smiling? Oh. Right. Poe.

“Yes, that’s the one. The Head Boy. He was in here last year with you. The headmistress had to remove him herself, or he would have been here all night.”

“Didn’t know that,” Rey yawned. “Finn had to tell me.”

“I’m sure he did.” Kalonia seemed very far away now, and a pleasant warmth descended over Rey and offered the promise of real sleep. She reached for it idly, but then –

“He’s not my young man,” Rey shook her head. “Not by a long shot.” She could feel his locket against her skin, warm even through her fever, and she wished she knew what to say to him to make up for all the silly things she had done this year – but focusing hurt her head, and she quickly forgot what she was thinking about.

“Mhm.” Now she couldn’t even see Kalonia. Had she – she had. She’d closed her eyes. “Not every day in this castle that you see what he did.”

“What’d he do?” Rey asked, cracking an eye open. Kalonia was a fuzzy shape at the end of her bed, fussing with her blankets.

“You don’t know?” Kalonia smiled at her, and Rey smiled back before closing both her eyes again. The nurse’s voice washed over her soothingly. “He restarted your heart, in that odd Muggle way.”

“What?” She pulled back from sleep harshly, her mind fighting the effects of the potion. _He did what?_

“They call it CPR, I believe,” Kalonia huffed and patted Rey on the head. “Oddest thing, a wizard not using his wand for that. Regardless of how he did it, that young man saved your life that day.”

 _What?_ Rey wanted to ask again, but sleep overcame her then, and she fell into a deep sleep punctuated by dreams of brown eyes, a warm, roughened voice stained by tears counting desperately, and the flashing colors of yellow and black that swam above her vision as she floated above her body lying broken on the ground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> !!!!!!!!!!!!


	5. A New Year, A New Term

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a disastrous misadventure in Greenhouse Seven, Rey finds herself entering the winter term of her sixth year in less than stellar health, and on strange footing with the handsome Head Boy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Rey spends some time in the hospital (again, and Poe isn't happy about it), and various references are made to vomit/illness/etc. Nothing graphic!
> 
>  
> 
> I don't know if anyone's even awake right now, but I'm having a terrible week, so I figured I'd post early to distract myself from ~real life~!!!

 “Hello, chickie.”

Rey smiled at her Herbology professor and mentor as she walked into the greenhouse and up to the diminutive woman. 

“Hello, Maz.” She accepted the cheek pinch with good grace, and finished braiding her plait while Maz lined up the fertilizing potions Rey would use that day. “What’s on the docket?”

“You’ll need to look after the plants in Greenhouse Seven,” Maz said, handing her a collection of vials, the liquids inside ranging in colour from cobalt blue to vibrant purple to murky green. “Some need more attention than others, but you know what to do.”

“Yes ma’am,” Rey said cheerfully. They were all familiar potions to her, and she was eager to get to work. “Will you be coming with me?”

“No,” Maz shook her head and patted Rey’s shoulder reassuringly. “I’ll be outside trying to rescue some of the snow squash from perdition. Call if you need me, child.”

Blossoming with pride from the fact that Maz trusted her in Greenhouse Seven by herself, Rey bounded off, trekking through the snow from the greenhouse reserved for first years, and over to the one barred to anyone but the most advanced Herbology students. She cracked open the door and took a deep breath, the greenery immediately setting her spirits at ease.

Rey then coughed a few times into her elbow – she’d been dismissed very reluctantly from the hospital wing by Kalonia two days prior, with strict instructions to avoid strenuous work or exposure to irritants to her lungs, lest she develop pneumonia. She hoped that the work expected of her apprenticeship didn’t count as ‘strenuous,’ but even if it did, she wasn’t much inclined to skive off her duties a second longer. 

Feeling a bit peaky, but undoubtedly happy to be useful again, Rey busied herself amongst the rows of plant life, adding a dash of fertilizer there, a pesticide here, and some of what Maz called ‘encouragements’ to the rare breeds especially sensitive to cold winter air that sometimes invaded the greenhouse and disrupted its humidity. While she worked, her mind wandered, and Rey found herself thinking of the locket around her neck, and the boy who had given it to her.

The other students were to return on Monday, only three days away. Rey hadn’t fully worked out what she wanted to say to the Head Boy when he arrived, but if the butterflies in her stomach were any indication, she had a general idea. Perhaps he wouldn’t be too adverse to another kiss on the cheek, if his reaction back in December was any indication of a possibility for a positive repeat. Perhaps, it wouldn’t have to be on his cheek…

She startled out of the thought as her watering can clanked against a worktable, upsetting a Shriveling Cactus, which hissed and retracted its spikes. “Sorry,” Rey muttered, patting its potted base reassuringly. “Sorry, love.” The cactus seemed to accept her apology, and returned to its normal, inflated size.

Smirking at the grumpy plant, Rey turned – but her eye caught on an oddity at the end of the greenhouse, in the far corner where there were a collection of test plants that Maz was working on. No student was technically allowed in the plot, but the strange toadstool drew her over as surely as a bee was drawn to nectar. Rey frowned and called out, “Professor?”

There was no answer as she stopped and kneeled at the edge of the plot. The fungal growth was oddly beautiful, almost midnight blue with speckles of white here and there. It looked like the night sky, and quietly hummed. Rey swore it got larger even as she looked it. “Professor?” She called again, examining the labels Maz had set out to describe the various growths in the plot. There was nothing about a fungus, mushroom, toadstool – “There’s something weird!” Rey shouted, louder than before.

“Weird?” Maz piped up from the other side of the glass. “What does weird mean, exactly?”

“Just…weird…” Rey muttered, scowling at the toadstool. She prodded it lightly with her gloved finger, and wrinkled her nose in distaste at the spongified texture.

“I’m doing battle with a very vicious weed at the moment,” Maz called. “I’ll be there in a minute.”

That wouldn’t do. Rey leaned in closer to the toadstool. No need to bother Maz: she’d been given this apprenticeship for a reason, and she couldn’t be very useful if she refused to confront oddities head on. Rey coughed once more into her elbow and reached out to test the soil, trying to discern how far the fungus had spread. She removed her wand from her robes at the same time, and after a pause, prodded the cap and then stem experimentally, preparing to excise it entirely.

And then, the toadstool emitted a great, terrible wheezing noise, and released a cloud of spores the same shade as its exterior.

“Oh,” Rey said faintly, breathing as humans are wont to do. And that was her last thought before the ground came rushing up to meet her.

***

“You know, maybe I should look into creating a program for frequent flyers.” Madam Kalonia scribbled some notes onto parchment as she took another reading, and ordered Rey to breathe for various counts.

“You really should,” Rey said. “Have I set a record yet?”

Kalonia snorted at her, and through the iridescent bubble that surrounded Rey’s hospital bed, she swore she saw the older witch roll her eyes. “Please, my dear. I was nurse when Luke Skywalker attended the academy. You haven’t even come close to his record yet.” Kalonia paused for a moment and then set her quill down. “Do not under any circumstance take that as a challenge.”

“Yes, Madam Kalonia.” Rey grinned, and the nurse sighed.

“You have a visitor,” she said, standing. “If you’re feeling up for it.”

“Yes!” Rey sat up eagerly, wincing slightly at the burning in her chest. “Definitely. Is it Finn?” Her best friend had been by, cackling at her, less than an hour after she woke up, but despite his joviality, his concern had shined through as he’d returned every day since she opened her eyes.

It was Tuesday now, and she’d missed the first two days of the term. Her friends had stopped by with homework yesterday, but after Professor Skywalker had come and suggested that she just sleep and recover, Rey had a feeling she wouldn’t have much to worry about making up once she was let out of the infirmary.

“Not Finn,” Kalonia said, quirking her mouth to the side. She eyed the door and then gestured to her own bangs. “Fix your hair,” she whispered. Rey gave her a strange look but complied, sweeping her hair to the side and smoothing it out. Kalonia offered her a wink and a thumbs up, and then walked primly over to the entrance. “You can come in, now.”

Rey’s leg twitched under the blanket when Poe Dameron shuffled in. She smiled at him, her cheeks instantly heating up at the sight of him, and she patted them with the back of her hand, praying that her brush with death could excuse the intense blush that was crossing her face.

She glanced at him from the corner of her eye and found that he wasn’t even looking at her as he stood at the side of her bed. _Huh._

“Hey,” Rey said, her voice still a little scratchy. “How was your holiday?”

“Fine,” Poe answered. His hand tightened into a fist, and she watched as his throat bobbed for a second, and he eyed the bubble that surrounded her bed. “I – I didn’t know you were here. I was told during lunch today.”

“If Finn lasted two full days without spilling the beans, that’s better than I hoped for,” Rey said cheerfully.

“Wasn’t Finn,” Poe muttered. “Ben Solo told me.”

“What?” It was a sharp question, but Rey was astounded. What business did Ben Solo, who’d only been by to see her once on Sunday night, have, telling Poe Dameron about her health.

“What happened?” Poe asked. His eyes were tight, and still avoiding her own. Rey shrugged and smiled.

“You might want to take a seat,” she suggested, airily waving to the chair outside her hot zone. “This could take a while.” Poe sat mutely, and finally looked at her, a strange level of control involved in his expression. Rey felt nervous, and tried to adjust her smile to be a winning, sweet one. His lips twitched in response, and she gestured at the table near him.

“I loved your present,” she said shyly. “It’s – it’s right there.” Poe reached out, and his fingers found the chain of the necklace. She watched, almost mesmerized, as he traced the length of it, and ended at the locket. “Thank you, so much. It’s the most wonderful thing I’ve ever gotten – I wore it every day, but with the quarantine, you see –”

“Why are you in quarantine?” Poe’s hand froze.

She felt like she was in trouble, somehow. Rey cleared her throat and answered. “So, I had the flu over the holiday—”

“They put you in quarantine for the flu?” Poe asked, sharply this time. Something almost dangerous crossed his face, and Rey rushed to smooth things over.

“No, no, of course not,” she laughed, nervously. “It was just the normal flu, Kalonia sorted it out, and she let me go.”

“Against advisement, and under strict orders to avoid anything that could irritate your lungs, which you promptly ignored,” Kalonia piped up, and Rey shot her a betrayed look. Poe looked over at the elderly nurse as well, and Kalonia looked between the two teenagers for a moment before shrugging with her hands in the air and disappearing into her office.

Rey stared at the bedspread and felt Poe’s eyes on her face once more. She continued, “Yeah, so, I, uh, went back to work? In the greenhouses. And there was this weird toadstool thing, and I tried to remove it by myself, so I wouldn’t bother Maz too much,” she spoke in a rush, trying to get the details out, but unsure if they were coming out straight. “It turns out – it was an invasive fungus, called the Fecundity of the Fae. It’s really, really rare, and Maz isn’t sure how it got in there, but I guess I disturbed it enough that it released these spores, and – and…”

Rey made the mistake of looking up, and the twisted expression on Poe’s face as he stared out into space and listened to her story made her redirect her eyes downward once more. “It uh, yeah, it’s fatal in high enough doses. But the fungus wants its victims alive, to fertilize its soil better, or whatever, so it kills you really slowly after the initial spore release. And Maz was right there, and I had just called for her, so she found me, and stabilized me, and brought me up to the castle. Wouldn’t have been nearly as bad if I hadn’t just gotten over the flu, but it was just sort of a series of disasters, you know?”

“Why were you even in the greenhouse?” Poe’s voice was darker than she remembered it, and Rey gave him a weird look.

“Because,” she said slowly. “Maz needed my help.”

“But you had the flu,” Poe pointed out. “Kanata wouldn’t push you to work if you were sick.”

“I was tired of feeling useless,” Rey said, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “So, maybe I pushed myself to go.”

“You don’t always need to be useful.” Poe’s legs stretched out, and his feet were blocked from going further by the quarantine limit. He grimaced. “I don’t think you have any self-preservation at all, sometimes.”

“Probably not,” Rey said, wincing internally at his too accurate assessment. “But, hey, at least I learned a cool word! It’s not every day your young lady contracts toximagipneumonitis!”

She’d wanted to make a joke, but Poe scoffed angrily and shook his head. “You don’t get it,” he snapped. Rey stared at him in amazement – even when reprimanding her, Poe never really managed to sound anything more than exasperated, or even on his worst days, cross. But now, he looked and sounded livid. “You could die, Rey, and you’re just – what, you’re making jokes?”

“I’m not going to die,” Rey said, her mind settling on the fact that he was just needlessly worried. Sweet, really. “Honesty, Poe. I’m fine, a guy from Mungo’s came when I was under and did some magic lung stuff, and then when I woke up, he gave me a potion for it. It’s really not bad, and I’m certainly not going to die.”

“ _You don’t know that._ ” Poe said through gritted teeth. He dragged his hands through his hair and left his left palm in front of his mouth for a second while he breathed deeply. “You don’t – you don’t know that, Rey, and you can’t just make jokes about it like it doesn’t matter, because you could have died, and your life is still in danger—”

“It isn’t,” Rey said, sitting more upright to frown at him. “I’m completely out of the woods now, the doctor cleared me on Monday, I’m right as rain—”

“Is that what you call this?” Poe demanded, waving at the bubble around her bed. “This? This is fine? You just risk your life, over and over again, and what doesn’t kill you becomes a joke?”

“I’m not going to die,” Rey said, but her breath caught on the second to last word, and she dissolved into a racking, horrible cough that made her sides and lungs ache. She felt like throwing up – the worst part of this infection, honestly – as she struggled to take an actual breath. Rey could sense Poe standing up, but her ears were too full of the sound of her own lungs fighting against the infection, her mind too focused on the vague, irrational terror of not being able to breathe to hear if he was saying anything.

Eventually, her breathing calmed, and she wiped her mouth, glad to see no red when she pulled her hand away. “I’m fine,” she said weakly, groggily while she reached for the water at her side. “Seriously, I’m fine.” She took a sip and winced at the way it ran down her raw throat.

“I’m sorry,” Poe whispered. She looked over to where he was now standing at the edge of the quarantine limit, one hand pressed up against the bubble, and saw the panic in his face. “I – I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Rey said quickly. He still looked exhausted, and worried, and angry, and Rey realized with her stomach plummeting that this couldn’t be further from how she imagined them greeting each other after the holiday. He didn’t look happy, and she’d made him look that way. Figured. “Hey, um,” she coughed one last time and took another sip of water. “I’m really tired, and I sort of need to—”

“Yeah,” Poe stammered, rubbing his neck. “No, yeah, totally—”

“Potion time,” Kalonia announced, bustling out of her office with a tray holding a steaming vial of thick, yellow liquid that worked as an anti-fungal. “And I don’t think Ms. Kenobi wants an audience for that.”

Rey laughed weakly. Poe didn’t. “Of course,” he said, nodding earnestly. “Yeah. I’m – I’m really sorry—”

“Potion time,” Kalonia repeated. She jabbed a finger towards the door before using her wand to levitate the potion towards Rey through the quarantine. “Out!”

Poe mumbled another apology and stepped backwards, accidentally toppling his chair over. He righted it, and looked up one last time, regret in his face. Rey had to ignore it though – the potion was only good while warm, and she sipped and fought the urge to gag at the viscous liquid.

“My favorite,” she rasped, smiling up at Kalonia. The nurse smiled back at her and indicated that she should keep drinking. Rey pulled a horrible face before draining the vial.

By the time she had done so, the hospital wing was vacant any earnest, exasperated Hufflepuffs.

***

A few weeks after her quarantine had ended, Rey found herself in the library with Finn and Rose.

They were discussing in hushed tones the possible trail that connected Anakin Skywalker to Vader – Rose had found an ancient textbook in the back of Potions that had the initials A.S. carved into the front, and had been promptly disturbed to find bizarre notes on alchemy and immortality covering most of the margins.

“We shouldn’t look too much at it,” Finn said, pushing the book away from him distastefully. “Who knows if it’s covered in curses or something.”

“It’s a book,” Rey said impatiently, her hand already reaching for it. “What’s it gonna do, shoot ink at my eyeballs?”

“You’ve been to the hospital twice this winter!” Rose pointed out, yanking the book away from her. “No touching the cursed object!”

“No one said it was cursed!” Rey pointed out. Rose huffed at her and set the book down, a safe distance away from Rey’s reach. Rey settled for eating some of her Bertie Bots Ever Flavor Beans, which she had snuck into the library to snack on during their work.

“ _Revelio,_ ” Rose said, tapping the book with her wand. Nothing happened. “Reveal your secrets,” she tried again, tapping the wand majestically once more.

Nothing.

“Can I touch it now?” Rey asked.

“No!” Finn and Rose spoke together, and Finn snagged the book away from her entirely, holding it tight to his chest. “No! With your luck, you’ll find whatever minor curse is on page 372, on one dot of ink, and end up in the hospital wing, again, with a never-ending nosebleed.”

“You’re terrible,” Rey grumbled as Finn tucked the book away. “Honestly, you sound like Dameron—”

“Who sounds like me?”

The three stopped and looked over guiltily at the Head Boy, who had clearly just walked up to their table.

“Sorry,” Rose said hastily. “Were we being too loud?”

“No,” Poe shook his head and smiled at them all, his eyes lingering on Rey before looking back at Rose. “Not at all, it’s just – you know, busy season with all of us indoors and—” He gestured behind him, and Rey, Finn, and Rose peeked around him to see the library’s group work section packed to the gills. There wasn’t a single seat in sight.

Except for the one next to Rey.

“Would you like to join us?” Rey’s traitor of a mouth formed the words before she could stop them. Finn gave her a look of amazement. Rose looked distinctly more pleased. Rey tried not to look at either of them. When Poe hesitated, she grabbed her schoolbag and hefted it off the chair next to her. “Here, it’s not a problem.”

“Thanks.” Poe smiled uncertainly at her and went to sit. To be fair, they hadn’t spoken since their disastrous meeting in the infirmary. After his poor reaction to a basic tenet of her personality, Rey had been too painfully self-aware that she definitely wasn’t good for Poe, and Poe had been too – shy? nervous? done with her? – to approach her on his own. It had left her feeling distinctly uneasy, but this – group work in the library, she could do this.

He pulled out his work and unrolled a few feet of parchment, propping up his Arithmancy textbook against his Advanced Potions text. Poe scribbled for a few seconds, Finn and Rose still staring between him and Rey in a mixture of amusement and befuddlement, and when he went to dip his quill in his ink, Finn asked, “Got a lot of work to do?”

“Huh?” Poe looked up, his quill still posed above the well. “Oh, yeah. Loads.  Professor Tuesso loves these damn calculations. It’s like the guy’s a robot.”

“Rose takes Arithmancy,” Finn said, nudging his girlfriend. “Right, Rosie?”

“Right,” she said, blinking away some of her lingering surprise. “Yeah, but it’s my favorite class.”

“He lets her call him Kay,” Finn looked oddly proud. “Said she’s got a naturally logical mind, and he would actually be unhappy if she vanished from his roster.”

“Hush,” Rose muttered, shoving at Finn and blushing slightly.

“High praise,” Poe noted, grinning widely at Rose. “I didn’t think Tuesso had it in him.”

“Everyone loves Rose,” Finn said. He leaned in quickly and kissed her cheek, startling her slightly as she’d been looking down at her Herbology textbook. “Especially me!”

“Cute,” Rey teased, sticking her tongue out at them. “So cute. I’ll need a dentist soon enough.”

“What’s a dentist?” Rose asked, eyes wide. Rey laughed brightly at her confusion, as did Poe.

“Is that one of those mad teeth-Healers that Muggles have?” Finn wrinkled his nose in disgust. “Foul, honestly foul. They get paid money to shove sharp crap into your mouth? Or glue metal to your teeth?”

“That’s an orthodontist,” Rey corrected, and Finn pulled another face. “They do braces.”

“And braces are…?” Rose leaned in as though Rey were giving a particularly interesting lecture.

“A torture device,” Poe laughed. They all looked at him, then. He noticed, and blushed, looking down. “Had them for two years.”

“You do have perfect teeth,” Rey commented before flinching and staring steadfastly at her parchment, to avoid the three pairs of eyes suddenly fixed on her face. “Just, it – uh – shows.”

“My mum just took me to a specialist when I was eight or so,” Rose said idly. “Waved his wand once, teeth were fine after that.”

“You wizards and your fix things quick nonsense,” Poe said. “Absolutely no character building involved, whatsoever.”

“I’d rather have less character if it means less metal sticking out of my face,” Finn argued.

Poe rolled his eyes and gave Finn a rude hand gesture, and they all laughed, startled to see the Head Boy do something so vulgar. “What?” He asked, laughing himself.

“We invite you,” Finn said, indignantly, “Into our home! Into! Our! Group!” Finn smacked the table with each word, and Rose snorted into her hand. “And this is how you repay me?”

“Oh, piss off,” Rey jeered, throwing some of her jelly beans (making sure to pick the gross flavored ones) at her friend. “You do ten times worse to me every day.”

Finn made an offended noise before picking up one of the beans and chucking it back in her face. A desperate battle ensued; Finn and Rey had to be subdued by an equally embarrassed but still laughing Poe and Rose before they all caught the eye and wrath of Madam Solusar.

***

As February began, Rey found her former trio expanded into more of a quartet. If anyone found it odd that a seventh-year, and the most popular one at school, at that, was spending time with three sixth-years, no one was saying anything. Rey was secretly pleased when Poe showed up to study sessions at the library, or when he joined them in the hallway for free periods, and she found herself looking forward to those encounters more and more.

One day, she craned her neck after Ancient Runes, peering down the hallway to the Arithmancy classroom.

“They have a practice NEWT today,” Rose reminded her. Rey startled and looked over, blushing. “It goes ‘til dinnertime.”

“Oh,” Rey squeaked, having been caught out. “Oh, that’s fine.”

“If me and Finn aren’t good enough for you though,” Rose teased. Rey jabbed her playfully, and they scurried down the hallway towards the Great Hall, laughing the whole time. Finn joined them on his way out of Theoretical Astronomy, and they hurried towards the outdoors. The temperature had unnaturally peaked, and the air was crisp and promised an early spring. With their fourth period free, they had snagged fruit and snacks during lunch, and they fully intended on monopolizing the afternoon.

The three friends settled near the edge of the courtyard, and Rose after a half hour, busied herself with her textbook, trying to find further influences of Vader’s followers on the Ministry in the early eighties.

Finn and Rey were ‘researched out,’ and chose to lounge in the weak, late winter sunlight instead.

“Rose’ll make a great professor, don’t you think?” Finn asked wonderingly. His girlfriend made no sign that she had heard him, focused as she was on her text.

“Definitely,” Rey agreed fervently. “No one does research like Rose.”

“Nope.” Finn grinned down at her, and then looked over at Rey, his expression softening somewhat. “Have you – have you thought about what you’re going to do? After Hogwarts?”

Rey shifted uncomfortably and folded her knees up to her chest, balancing on the low stone wall she’d settled on. She rested her chin on her knees and evaded the question. “Have you?”

“Yeah,” Finn nodded and looked down at the ground, shrugging. “I want to be an Auror.”

“Oh?” Rey blinked in surprise and felt her brow furrow. “I had no idea you were…interested in that.”

“Yeah.” Finn smiled quietly to himself before continuing. “I think it’ll be good, take out some of the Dark in the world. It’ll be wicked to hunt down people like Vader, and … I just, I want to help people, you know?”

“Yeah.” Rey nodded and bit her lip, but didn’t say anything more besides, “I think you’ll be good at it. You’re a good person. And I think that helps, to be an Auror.”

“Oddly enough, it’s not in the job description,” Finn laughed self-deprecatingly. “But high marks in all my exams – that’s a must.” Rey smiled weakly, waiting for: “You though, you could get into training like that.”  He snapped for emphasis.

“I don’t want to,” Rey said miserably. “I don’t think it’s for me.”

“Okay.” Finn shrugged good-naturedly and smiled at her. “Then it’s not for you.” She felt the tightening around her heart lessen somewhat at how easily Finn had accepted her answer.

If only Professor Skywalker, or Organa, or Ben did.

And then there was the nagging thought she got sometimes around Poe, who, for all his kindness and sweet attention, sometimes just seemed so utterly disappointed in her ( _wasting potential,_ she had always heard in his mini-lectures to her and Finn, _waste of a good mind_ ). Especially after what happened after break – Rey wilted at the thought that no matter what she was, it would never be good enough for Poe Dameron.

But, Finn Trooper smiled at her as easily and carefree as ever, and Rey took great comfort in that idea, and in her best friend, as he deftly changed the topic towards something much lighter and less terrifying than their future after Hogwarts.

***

On February 14, Rey woke up with a strange flutter in her stomach. She got dressed in her uniform, and straightened out the one piece of jewelry she regularly wore, her locket, so that it hung on the outside of her shirt and vest. Her hand lingered on the circular pendant for a long moment as she stared into the mirror of the dormitory bathroom – and she shivered slightly, but not from the cool morning air.

She’d woken from a befuddling dream not three nights before. In the dream, Rey had been summoned to the Room of Requirement, a mysterious room in Hogwarts that she’d only been able to access once, when she’d needed a test dummy for a prank. But in the dream, she’d entered easily, into a room lined with marble statues full of men and women in various poses from the mythology stories Obi read to her as a child.

Rey had darted in and out of the statues for a while, laughing happily, before she’d bumped into the person who had called her there – not that she’d had any idea in the dream until she saw him. Poe had caught her, his hands warm and almost solid on her body, and she’d still been laughing when his lips met hers. Rey had woken up a few seconds later, her face flushed and her heartbeat rapid, and she hadn’t been able to get it out of her head since.

Now, she didn’t have to wonder long at the source of the anticipation in her stomach. It was Valentine’s Day, a day she’d never paid any attention to in the past. But, with more and more time spent with Poe (in the company of Rose and Finn, but still), and the locket warm against her chest, Rey hoped that today, there might be a renewal of interest from the Hufflepuff.

 _Don’t get your hopes up,_ she scolded herself in the mirror. _It’s not like he’s been interested at all since the term started._ And to be sure, Poe hadn’t expressed any interest in her after he’d given her the locket. Their awkward conversation in the hospital lingered overhead at all times, and Rey squirmed sometimes from how badly she wished for their previous order to be restored.

But – maybe she’d been misreading the signals again, and he was still – no. No, this wouldn’t do. Rey shook herself, forced the butterflies to exit her stomach, and walked down to breakfast with her head held high.

The first part of the day passed with absolutely no event of interest. Finn and Rose were cuter than normal, perhaps, and had gone off for a planned, special lunch that Finn had put together, so Rey ate with Ben in the Great Hall. He joined her at the Gryffindor table, somewhat reluctantly, but Rey had pouted at him until he sat down, and he looked secretly pleased that she’d almost begged him to sit with her.

Their conversation was stilted, Ben often lapsing into silence, studying her face, but she didn’t mind, and soon it was time for Defense Against the Dark Arts. It was there that the most interesting thing of her school day happened.

Halfway through the lesson, a knock sounded at the door. Luke paused from where he was quietly lecturing on the adverse effects of lycanthropy at times other than the full moon, and called out, “Enter.”

A messenger boy dressed as Cupid walked in, and the class stared in amazement. Luke, however, groaned and buried his face in his textbook which he had open at the lectern. “Oh, no,” he moaned.

Leia was standing behind the messenger, taking pictures.

“You Luke Skywalker?” The man asked gruffly. Luke nodded, peeking out from where he’d hidden his face. The faux-Cupid cleared his throat and read aloud from a frilly valentine. “To my cuddly, grumpy bear: although your beard is graying, and your shoes are simply gross, I hope you know that I’m saying, it’s you I love the most.”

“Awwwww,” a Ravenclaw in the first row squealed.

“Shh.” The cupid shushed her viciously and kept reading. “Happy Valentine’s Day to the best ex-boyfriend I ever had. Love, Bodhi.” The Cupid bowed very sarcastically and left without another word. Leia cackled, took one last picture of her mortified brother, and then closed the door.

“Your…ex sends you Valentines?” Finn asked, eyebrows raised clear to his hairline.

Luke lifted his head slightly and mumbled. “I told him to stop calling me that.”

“Sir?” Kare piped up.

“That was my husband,” Luke sighed. “And he is very much in trouble. Anyway. Werewolves at the gibbous moon may find themselves craving rare or even raw meat…”

The class stared at each other for a few more seconds, and then at Luke, who resolutely plowed on with his lecture. After a few more nervous giggles and titters, they settled down and continued to take notes for the rest of the hour.

***

Rey was settling into window seat on the second floor later that evening, after dinner. She was trying to put the fact that she hadn’t seen a certain Hufflepuff at dinner out of her mind. _What if he went out to dinner?_ Her mind whispered traitorously. _What if he had a date, with someone, anyone, better than you_? Rey cleared her throat and reached for her bag, abandoned at her feet.

Before she could reach it, it moved slightly. Rey’s hand froze above the satchel, and she stared in shock as it continued to heave and shift as though –

She flipped open the top, and said, “Aha!”

A tiny, adorable, very familiar niffler stared up at her in surprise, its wee little paws clutching a now-opened package of crisps she’d stored away to munch on while studying. “Thief,” she crowed, scooping the niffler up. “You little thief.” The niffler didn’t seem too bothered by the accusation, but it did eagerly reach up for the silver locket around her throat, its snout covered in chip crumbs. “Nope,” she scolded, trying to stroke down its back the way Poe had shown her. “You’re going back to your friend right now.”

Pretending that it had absolutely nothing to do with potentially seeing Poe, Rey awkwardly scooped up her stuff, maintained her hold on the slippery creature, and marched towards the kitchens and the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room. She cooed and talked to the small animal while she walked, and she was so caught up in the one-sided conversation, she almost walked smack into the very person she was looking for.

“Poe!” Rey cried, and he started slightly. He had been standing in the passageway leading to his common room, but as far as she could tell, he hadn’t been walking anywhere. _And he’s also alone,_ she noted eagerly. _No snogging, no dates –_ “By any chance, do you keep a niffler as a pet in this castle?”

“Maybe,” Poe said, wincing. “Okay, yeah. His name’s Beebee – and – I have special permission –"

 “I’m not here to get you in trouble!” Rey said quickly. “I’m here to return this little thief! I think Beebee assumed I had treasure.” She laughed and held the small niffler up for observation. “But, alas, I only had a package of crisps in my bag.”

“Oh, crap, I’m sorry.” Poe gently took the squirming niffler in his own hands, and ran a soothing hand down its back. The tiny creature huffed happily and settled down immediately.

“I tried that,” Rey said casually. “He didn’t seem interested in calming down for me, though.”

“Beebee’s a wild one,” Poe confirmed. And then he sniffed. A large hand was hastily wiping his nose by the time Rey tilted her head and squinted in the flickering torchlight.

Poe Dameron had been crying.

“Um.” Rey squirmed internally, her eyes darting around the corridor as though she would discover someone who was better at this than she was. “Are you alright?”

“What?” Poe’s bloodshot eyes blinked slowly, twice, before he held the niffler close to his body and dropped his head so she couldn’t see his face anymore. “Oh – uh, yeah. I’m fine.”

 _Great!_ Rey should have said. _Glad to hear it. Have a lovely evening._

“Are you sure?” She asked. “Really. Do you … need someone to talk to?”

_You do not know how to talk about feelings, numpty. You have maybe five feelings, and hunger is at least three of them. You are the last person who can help anyone._

Poe lifted his eyes, clearly as surprised as she was at the offer. “No, really, it’s…it’s nothing.” He waved a hand dismissively, and then looked back at the ground.

“Okay,” Rey said doubtfully.

“See you around,” Poe blurted out. “Thanks for bringing Beebee back.” And then he turned on his heel and walked down the corridor, the niffler tucked into the crook of his elbow.

Rey stared after him before she turned and headed back to her own tower. Halfway there, inspiration, struck, and she jogged the last part of her journey, hoping to make it back down to the Hufflepuff common room before curfew.

***

Rey’s hand hesitated at the portrait, unsure whether she should knock or not. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time, but somewhere between her dorm and here, she’d lost heart. She shook herself and was about to turn and leave, when a deep voice boomed out from behind her.

“Out or in, Kenobi?” She winced and looked over her shoulder to smile at her friend.

“Hey Snap,” she said, feeling oddly guilty. “What’s up?”

“Nothing much,” the large seventh-year answered, grinning. “Just been standing here for a minute and a half, waiting to see if Dameron was going to pop out and let you in. Not that I’m particularly against our boy breaking the rules, but—”

“Um,” Rey squeaked, blushing furiously. Snap looked a little apologetic when he saw her embarrassment. “Poe doesn’t know – he didn’t invite me—”

“Here.” Snap patted her on the shoulder, noted what she was holding, and smirked deeper. “Allow me.” Snap tapped a few places on the portrait, too quick for Rey to follow, and the portrait swung inward. “Dameron!” He shouted, stepping up into his common room. “You have a visitor!”

Rey floundered for a few seconds, more than a couple Hufflepuffs turning to stare at her. Some nudged each other knowingly, and Rey shoved her present behind her back, staring at the floor in front of her in mortification.

“I do?” There was that all-too-familiar voice, and Rey fought the urge to bolt. “Oh.” She looked up through her eyelashes, and saw Poe standing in the entrance, looking incredibly surprised. “Rey? Uh, Rey! Hey.” Poe turned and glared over his shoulder. “What are you looking at?” He said, and Rey assumed the Hufflepuffs behind him hurried to at least look like they weren’t eavesdropping.

Poe closed the portrait somewhat so her vision was blocked (and those inside couldn’t see her anymore), and cocked his head. “What’s…uh, what’s up?”

“Well, um, you know, Obi Wan is a florist now that he's retired,” Rey said, and Poe leaned against the doorframe, his eyes still red, but an actual smile on his face. He nodded slowly, clearly trying to demonstrate his previous knowledge of this. “So. Um. Yeah, he’s a florist for Muggles. And. Well, Muggles like him because his flowers don’t die. Only, Obi Wan won’t tell me _how_ he gets them to … not die. He said I had to figure it out for myself. And. Um. I’ve been practicing all year in my dorm room, and –”

“Rey?” She stopped babbling and stared at him. He looked much different when he was up higher than her, the soft light of his common room wreathing him as he studied her. Rey pulled the bunch of sunflowers out from behind her back, and Poe stood up straight, his expression shifting too quickly for her to quite be able to catch.

She mutely held the flowers up to him, and Poe’s eyebrows raised. He slowly extended his hand and grabbed the stems. Rey cleared her throat and whispered, “They’re for you. Thought you might need some, um, sunshine.”

“Rey, you didn’t have to—” His voice was soft, and Rey flushed deeply and stared at the tapestry on the wall.

“See you,” she squeaked, nerves entirely shot. She sprinted down the corridor, back up towards the safety of her tower.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed ! Thanks for reading <3 As I said before, writing this fic and your lovely comments are getting me through a crappy week!


	6. Push and Pull

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As winter draws to an end, Rey finds some friendships disintegrating, even while others strengthen beyond a doubt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING; Ben uses incredibly vulgar language and insults Rey.  
> WARNING: Discussion of death of parent

_Crime Rates Against Muggles Reaches Highest Point Since 1984_

Rey unfurled the Daily Prophet at breakfast and stared in shock at the image on the front cover; an ouroboros hovering over a tower block, flickering ominously as families ran from the burning building. Rey squinted at the first line of the article and gasped.

“This is fifteen minutes from my house!” She exclaimed, eyes wide as she showed Finn and Rose. Rey continued reading, stopping to point out that, “The group responsible is claiming to be…the heirs of Vader.”

“So maybe the heir apparent isn’t just one person?” Finn asked, brow furrowed as he took the paper from Rey. “Blimey, I live in a block just like this.”

“It’s sick,” Rose said faintly, abandoning her breakfast to read over her boyfriend’s shoulder. “Apparently they were placing hexes on them as they evacuated the building. Nothing life-threatening, but imagine, having no idea magic was real, and then… in the middle of losing everything you have…”

“Why hasn’t the crime rate been front page news for weeks?” Rey demanded, righteous anger sparking to life inside of her. “If it’s been rising the way they say it has, why not report on it? Demand that we take action?”

“Because they don’t really give a damn about Muggles,” Finn snapped, shutting the paper and tossing it onto the table between them. The photo of the families continued to move, sluggish and ominous, staring up at the enchanted ceiling. “They just want to pick the headline that sells the most papers, and that definitely catches the eye; not, ‘Teen Muggles Mugged by Wizarding Dickheads on Way Home from Practice.’ They wanted to wait for it to be eye-catching news, and they wanted to be the first to break it.”

“That’s a little pessimistic,” Connix noted, having overheard part of the conversation. She looked at the newspaper cast to the side and grimaced. “Or maybe not.”

Then it was time to go to classes, and Rey tucked the paper away in her bag, a stone of white-hot, impotent anger sitting in her stomach all morning.

At lunch, she walked quickly through the crowd, hoping to catch up with Rose on her way out of Ancient Runes, when someone grabbed her arm.

“Hey, stranger.” Ben Solo smiled at her, and Rey managed a smile back. They were currently on the _up_ side of their friendship cycle, and she knew she should at least try to be pleasant, lest her perceived moodiness inspired another row.

“’Lo, Ben,” Rey said. She re-shouldered her bag, knocked somewhat askew when he’d caught her by the arm. “How are you?”

“Good, good,” Ben did look healthier than he had all year. “Would you like to get lunch?”

“Um,” Rey hefted her bag again; she could practically feel it groaning at the seams. Even though the NEWTs were over a year away, her professors seemed to think it was time to double up on homework, so they would be ‘completely prepared’ in sixteen months. “Yeah, sure, that’d be nice.” They walked in companionable silence to the Great Hall, and when Ben gestured to the Slytherin table, she couldn’t think of a reason to refuse.

Jess smiled at her and waved when she walked over, but something in her expression darkened when she saw who Rey was with. Rey’s smile became somewhat apologetic, and she managed a half-shrug as she sat down at the bench, assuming Ben would take a seat across from her.

He sat down next to her, and they faced the rest of the Great Hall, Slytherin being the farthest table on the left. The food soon appeared, and Rey was able to ignore the hulking presence of her childhood friend, in favor of the delicious stew and bread she was so fond of.

“Still eat like it’ll be the last time, then?” Ben joked, and Rey elbowed him, pretending the comment didn’t sting.

“Mhm,” she agreed, mouth full of food. Rey took a swig of cider and wiped her mouth. “You’d know that if you’d stuck around over the holiday.”

“Ouch,” Ben said drily. “Did mother put you up to that?” He didn’t sound angry, more pretend-cross, so Rey grinned over at him and reached for another piece of bread.

“Nope,” Rey said. “But…she really did miss you. Your dad, too, Ben.”

“They didn’t miss me, they were angry that I made a decision without them,” Ben said; she didn’t have to look over to see him roll his eyes. She could hear it in his voice. “But I don’t really want to talk about them. I want to hear how you’re doing.”

“Things are fine,” Rey said quickly. “Been doing a lot of research.”

“With Trooper and Tico?” Ben asked. He stopped eating and rested an elbow on the table, examining her thoughtfully.

“Yes,” Rey answered, pausing in her chewing as well. She faced him, and they looked at each other for a moment. “And Poe Dameron.” She didn’t imagine the anger that flashed in Ben’s eyes, nor did she imagine the dark circles that lingered under those brown eyes that used to be so clear.

“Dameron,” Ben scoffed, the way he always did with Poe’s name. “You could be spending time with a lot better than Dameron – and the fact that I’m including Trooper in that figure should be pretty significant.”

Rey bristled at the intended slight towards Finn, and also Poe. “They’re both very good friends,” she snapped. “Poe is incredibly kind, and sweet, and Finn has always been there for me.”

“Sweet,” Ben sneered. Rey swallowed some of her anger – why had she agreed to eat with him, again? He’d been so different all year.

“Yes,” Rey said angrily. “He’s _gentle_. It’s not a sign of weakness, although I’m sure your little friends think otherwise. And besides, you don’t get to complain about who I hang out with when I haven’t seen you all year. That certainly wasn’t my decision, don’t forget.”

Ben blinked in surprise, and some of his anger seemed to evaporate, a teasing grin taking its place. He looked so much more handsome like that, Rey realized, startled, his long face rounded out by the expression. “You miss me, Kenobi?” He said, poking her gently on the upper arm.

Rey took a deep breath, nearly getting whiplash from the change in tone. “Yes,” she said, not bothering to keep the hurt out of her voice, even though Ben clearly wanted to lighten the mood. “I miss you.”

“You don’t need to miss me,” Ben murmured, leaving his hand where he’d poked her. Rey relaxed into the soft touch, and he stroked her shoulder reassuringly. “I’m right here.”

“Are you?” Rey asked bitterly, tears in her eyes now. “Because last time I checked, you were up to your eyeballs in whatever crap the Knights of Ren were up to. I had a terrible winter, and I barely saw you! I don’t even know what your life is like, other than hanging out with Hux and Phasma, and there’s been so much going on.” She trailed off, unwilling even now to tell him what she’d been researching. If her conjecture about Vader were true, that would mean she was sitting next to Vader’s grandson, one of the last of the Skywalkers. Ben was in Slytherin just as much for the power of his family line as he was for his ambition and determination.

He was also highly volatile; and if he didn’t know about his grandfather…Rey didn’t want to be the one to tell him. It would be too upsetting. And, if she were being honest with herself, it might be too much for a boy who had always been tempted by the Darker side of magic. She shivered with some long-buried memory of her childhood, a day that Ben had found her being chased by Muggle boys who’d been bullying her. When he’d found them in that alley…

“I’m sorry,” Ben said, his hand not moving from her arm. Rey swallowed and nodded. She couldn’t think of the past like that. Not when Ben had been there for her through so much. Besides, he’d acted in her defense that day. “I know I’ve been a shit friend, and I’m sorry I’ve been so busy. I’ll do better.”

“You’d better,” Rey muttered, swatting at his wrist. He moved it, not seeming happy about it.

Rey turned and went back to picking at her food, and her eyes drifted to the doors. On the way there, they caught on a familiar face. Poe Dameron was staring at her, fork frozen in his hand, buried in a plate of food. Snap was talking boisterously next to him with Yolo, Werther, and a few other players on the Hufflepuff team. Rey lifted her left hand in greeting, a small, surreptitious wave (Ben was still talking and she didn’t want to reveal that she wasn’t really listening), a smile playing at her lips.

They hadn’t spoken since Valentine’s Day, almost a full week ago now. He’d been caught up with extra Quidditch practices while his team prepared to face Ravenclaw, and the match was tomorrow. Rey pretended that it was absolutely normal that she’d asked after his schedule to Snap (and Snap had been kind enough to tell her without teasing her too much, even though his eyes did most of the joking for him).

He didn’t wave back.

Rey frowned, anxiety curling in her stomach. Were they back to this, then? This awkward stage before they’d been friends? Maybe he’d hated the flowers. Her hand went to her locket, and she looked down, cheeks burning, tears in her eyes for a new reason now.

Ben’s arm wrapped around her shoulders, and she frowned over at him now, peering up into his face. He was grinning widely, obviously having just said something, and Rey shrugged.

“Sorry,” she whispered. “My mind kind of drifted.”

He laughed cheerfully. “That’s ironic because I was saying, it’s nice to have your undivided attention,” Ben said. “I really did miss you, radish. A whole lot.”

“Ugh, I hate that name,” Rey laughed as well, shoving at him playfully, not bothering to scoot out from under his arm. She liked being touched too much, something she’d never admit – Rey craved the warmth of other people, the coldness of her early childhood still a ghost she needed to get out from underneath (it was something Rose had discovered a few months ago, and Rey loved her Ravenclaw friend all the more for always snuggling into her side when they were studying. Rey never had to ask, something she was too proud to do, anyway).

He poked her in the ribs, and Rey shrieked with indignation, a highly undignified noise. “Not fair!” She said, laughing more. “Just wait ‘til I get my revenge, Solo.”

“You won’t hear me complain,” Ben smirked, and Rey rolled her eyes. She looked back over towards the doors – Poe didn’t look frozen anymore. He looked stricken. Rey opened her mouth halfway, something unpleasant forming in the pit of her mind, and she looked back over at Ben. He was still smirking, but it was directed at Poe, now. And it was mocking.

“What are you doing?” She asked quietly.

“Hmm?” Ben smiled down at her, the hard edge not gone from his eyes. “What do you mean?”

“Why are you looking at Poe like that?” She asked, shoving at his hand. “Stop touching me.” Ben complied immediately, but he looked angry. “Why were you looking over at Poe like that?”

“You’re always concerned about Poe Dameron,” Ben accused. His face seemed to darken again. “About what he thinks, or what he does—”

“He’s my friend,” Rey protested. “Just like you.” That really didn’t help Ben’s expression. He’d always been a possessive friend. “And it looked like you were trying to get a rise out of him.”

“If Dameron wants to fight me, he can go right ahead,” Ben said primly. “Merlin knows I’d love an excuse to lay him out on his ass.”

“But why?” Rey demanded, her temper too far gone to control. “Why Poe? He’s been nothing but kind and helpful all year, and he’s not a bad person. I don’t see why you hate him!”

“He’s not a bad person to you because he wants to fuck you!” Ben thundered, and more than one Slytherin, and a few Ravenclaws stopped eating to stare at them in shock. Rey’s face heated up from the attention, and as whispers began to spread, she stood quickly, knocking the bench back slightly as she rose.

“No,” Ben said, grabbing her arm, his eyes wild and desperate. “No, I’m sorry, that wasn’t okay—”

“This might come as a shock to you, _Benjamin,_ ” Rey seethed, tears now threatening to swarm out of her eyes. “But not everyone is kind to me only because they want…they want something from me.” She tugged her arm viciously away from him. “Let go of me.”

“Let her go, Solo.” Jess was standing as well, glowering at them. “Now.”

“Stay out of this, Pava,” Ben barked, but he did release Rey. “It’s none of your business.”

“Oh yeah?” Jess scowled at him. “Fifteen points from Slytherin. For being a massive dick.” She walked over and tugged gently on the strap of Rey’s bag, ignoring Ben’s spluttered protest. “Let’s go, Kenobi.” The older girl ushered her out the doors, standing on her left so the rest of the hall couldn’t see her as she started to cry in earnest.

“Did he hurt you?” Jess asked quietly, once they were in the front hall. She offered Rey a tissue out of nowhere, and she took it, blowing her nose. “Cuz I can go back in there and kick his ass.”

“I’m fine,” Rey laughed shakily, wiping her cheeks dry. “I’m just an angry crier. And I’m angry a lot. This isn’t uncommon.”

“Oof, angry crying,” Jess shook her head and smiled at her. “I get that. It’s like, _no, I want to kick your ass, don’t be confused by me sobbing. I’ll still fight you_.”

“Exactly,” Rey laughed more clearly now. “You sure you aren’t a Gryffindor?”

“Are you kidding me?” Jess raised her eyebrows, and nodded at the front entrance. The girls walked towards the fresh air, and Jess looped her arm through Rey’s, leaning in conspiratorially. “I look terrible in red.” It made Rey laugh (not that she thought Jess could look bad in any colour, she was far too pretty), and that seemed to set Jessika more at ease.

After a few minutes in the cool air, Jess turned to her, some of her smile falling away. “Do you want to talk about it?” She asked softly. “What he said, it really wasn’t okay.”

“No,” Rey shook her head, and studied the forest in the distance. “I know it wasn’t. He didn’t mean it, he was just—”

“You don’t need to make excuses for his behavior,” Jess reminded her. “And…for what it’s worth. It’s not true.”

“What?” Rey raised an eyebrow at her, and Jess jerked her head towards the castle. They walked back in, shoulder to shoulder, as the rest of the students started streaming from the hall towards classes.

“Poe Dameron isn’t kind to you because of that,” Jess said. “Not at all.”

“I know that,” Rey said quickly. “God, I know. Poe’s a really, really good person. He’s kind to everybody.”

“You aren’t just everybody, either.” Jess said enigmatically. Before Rey could ask what she meant, Jess nudged her and pointed up the staircase on their right. “Go quick, here comes Solo.” Rey nodded and whispered a thank you before darting up the steps and towards Charms.

***

Rey walked through the party, her drink loose in her hand, before she spotted who she’d come to see. He was standing in the corner, an odd choice for the man of the hour – but Poe Dameron always found ways to surprise her, she supposed.

“Congratulations,” Rey said softly. He looked up, startled, and smiled at her. “Ravenclaw’s been hard to beat this year.”

“You beat them,” Poe pointed out, smiling. “Handily, too.” Rey shrugged and leaned against the wall next to them.

“Just take the compliment, Dameron,” she said, nudging him gently. Poe nodded and laughed, looking down at his cup and then over at her. Rey stared out into the party and pretended not to notice. “Will you be returning to our study sessions now that it’s over?” She prayed her wistfulness didn’t leak into her tone, or it if did, the thumping music covered it up efficiently enough.

“Do you want me to?” Rey did turn her head to look at him this time, to see if she’d imagined the shyness in his voice. She hadn’t. Poe’s eyes looked like liquid amber tonight, and she swallowed, leaning in slightly.

“Yes,” she whispered, nodding as well. Rey wasn’t quite sure if she was saying yes to his question, or something more, or if she should care. “I do.” Poe’s tongue darted out and wet his bottom lip, and she found it oddly hypnotizing.

“I’ve been meaning to tell you something,” Poe said, his eyes now locked on hers. Their shoulders pressed together as they stood against the wall, and Rey found that she liked not having to tilt her head back to study his face, that she liked being almost as tall as him. It made it easier to look at him, and she liked looking at him.

“What?” Rey asked, breathless. She barely said the word, and there was no way he’d heard her over the noise of the party, but he opened his mouth to answer anyway, tilting his head slightly and stepping away from the wall slightly to turn towards her.

“Captain!” Yolo shouted. “O Captain, my Captain!”

“You gotta be kidding me,” Poe muttered, blinking. Rey blinked as well, and she looked over almost guiltily to see that half of Hufflepuff, and a good chunk of Gryffindors and Ravenclaws were looking at them; many of them were smirking. She blushed and looked at the floor. “What? What is it?”

“We need to sing a song in your honor!” Snap roared, gesturing for Poe to come join them. Poe laughed, once, rolling his eyes.

“Help me, you’re my only hope,” he whispered to Rey, but she shook her head and grinned, pushing him slightly to get off the wall. Poe groaned and stumbled with mock reluctance, dragging his feet. He turned and smiled at Rey while his team reached out and grabbed him by the sweater, and Rey laughed as they launched into a very, very bawdy rendition of the Hogwarts school song.

Poe stood in the middle, wincing but laughing, especially when Werther fell to his knees and wailed, “ _Teach us something, please!_ ” and his Chasers all swooned and slammed into him, almost knocking him over. Rey roared and clapped with the rest of the party when it was over, and Poe walked back over to her, blushing wildly.

“You look like you didn’t enjoy that,” Rey teased, and Poe laughed, looking side to side (some of his house were loudly demanding he return for an encore), before holding his hand out to her.

“Wanna go somewhere more quiet?” He asked. Rey considered the question, feeling her heart in her throat. “Just to talk,” Poe said, smiling at her nervously. _That’s what he and Marci always said,_ an unfair echo of the last Hufflepuff party she’d attended reminded her. “Just talking” was their code. And that’s what this was, wasn’t it? Was he talking in code now?

Rey took his hand and let him pull her away from the wall. “Yes,” she said, telling herself to be brave and face the unknown. “Let’s go.”

Poe led her away from the party, and down a warmly lit passage. “This is way nicer than the tower,” Rey said, talking nervously. That hadn’t really been something she’d done in the past, but here she was, blathering away. “Our tower is sort of cold and just up and down, not – not – homey, quite like this.”

“It is nice,” Poe agreed, sounding distant. He’d let her go of her hand when they reached the passageway, and soon they reached a beautiful window, the stone sides of which were carved with historical wizards and witches who’d been in Hufflepuff. There was a small seat in the bay window, and Poe gestured to it. Rey sat, heart pounding more wildly than it ever had, and she cleared her throat, staring out into the starry night.

“You’re still wearing it?” Poe settled next to her, and Rey’s hand went to her locket as he spoke.

“Yes,” she smiled and looked down, blushing. “I wasn’t kidding when I said it was the nicest thing anyone’s ever given me.”

“It looks good on you,” Poe said, not a hint of innuendo in his voice. “I’m really glad you liked it.”

“Thank you,” Rey set her jaw and faced him. “So, what did you want to talk about?” _I’ve never kissed anyone,_ she thought frantically, praying that he could pick up on her thoughts. _I know you’re the sex god of Hufflepuff, or whatever, but I’ve never even kissed anyone –_

Poe scooted in closer, and she mimicked him. Their knees brushed, and his hand lifted; she stiffened, waiting for it to cup her cheek, she wondered if it would be warm (of course it would be warm), if he’d have callouses from flying, if she’d feel that proverbial spark of lightning when he touched her –

Poe smoothed his hair out, and left this hand on his neck. Odd.

“I should be thanking you,” he said, eyes lowered. He didn’t sound seductive, not at all. Rey leaned in so she could hear him better. “For giving me those flowers the other day.”

“Oh.” Rey smiled at him, but he didn’t see her. He still looked down. “I just wanted to…cheer you up a little. Did it work?”

He shrugged, and his cheeks turned pinker. “It did,” he said slowly. “…And it didn’t.”

Huh?

“What do you mean?” Rey asked, brow furrowing as she worked it out.

“It made me feel better because it was sweet, and unexpected, and it was a nice moment in a horrible day,” Poe said, his voice still pitched low. “But, February 14th, it’s… it’s a really hard day for me.”

“You hate the colour pink?” Rey asked. She winced automatically. It wasn’t the time for jokes, clearly; Poe shrugged, barely having heard her, clearly. He turned and faced out the window, and their knees were no longer touching. “I’m sorry, just – why is it hard? If you want to tell me.”

“I do,” Poe said miserably. “I just – I probably won’t be able to look at you when I do, okay?”

“Okay. Whatever you need.” She leaned in so her shoulder was barely brushing his, and Poe took a deep, shuddering breath.

“I wish it wasn’t a hard day of the year,” Poe began, his eyes squinting almost all the way shut. “Because…it’s a day about love, you know? And…and I’d like to do something nice with the person I love on that kind of day.” Rey’s heart fluttered, but she didn’t stop and ask if there was already someone he loved. “But. It’s… it’s hard for me. And my dad. See, my mom – Shara Bey, you know, the famous Quidditch player,” his voice became ironic briefly. “She died when I was ten years old, right before I got my letter for Hogwarts. She was – um, she was sick, for a long time, and they couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her, so I spent a lot of the year when I was ten at St. Mungo’s, waiting for them to let me see her, even though it was for less than an hour a day.”

“I didn’t know that,” Rey whispered, stricken. Poe nodded, his throat bobbing, not looking at her.

“Yeah. Um.” He cleared his throat and wiped his eyes. “They thought she was getting better, and my dad planned this Valentine’s Day thing for us to celebrate in the hospital with her, but – she took a bad turn overnight, and – and –” He broke off suddenly, a tear rolling out of his eye. Rey made a noise of sympathy, but Poe dashed the tear away, and the next time he spoke, his voice was angry. “We barely were allowed to see her – because my dad’s a Muggle, and this bigoted piece of shit Healer thought that Muggles shouldn’t be allowed into restricted wings, in case they saw something that threatened that stupid Statute, or whatever.”

“What?” Rey asked, horrified. “They did _what_?”

“My mom spent the last six months of her life separated from her husband, and this one day, this one fucking day that’s supposed to be about love, and spending time with the person you love,” Poe ranted on, before settling with another, rattling, gasping breath. “Shit, I’m – I’m sorry, I don’t mean to unload.”

“It’s okay,” Rey said firmly. “Go ahead, I’m here. I’m listening.”

Poe nodded and finished his story. “So, whenever I see those decorations, and people talk about the day – all I can think of is my father, who loved my mother so, so much, who’s never going to get another Valentine’s Day with his _soulmate_.” His breath caught on a sob. “It isn’t fair.”

It really wasn’t. Rey’s heart broke, in a simple, life-altering way, for the kind, sweet boy sitting next to her. She didn’t know where to begin – emotions were hard enough when they were her own, and she wanted nothing more in the galaxy than to offer him comfort. But where to begin? Empathy?

“I’m so, so sorry that happened to you,” Rey said. “And…that Healer doesn’t deserve the name. And I’m sorry for your father, and you, for losing someone you loved.” She shook her head, and laughed once, sadly. “I’m no good at this, I’m afraid.”

“You’re good at everything,” Poe said, a semblance of his normal sweetness leaking through.

“Not this,” Rey said. Her voice quivered, but she needed to try – “See, when … when I was a child, um…you probably noticed that I do…stupid things…quite a lot…and it might seem like I don’t care how it ends up, and honestly, most of the time I don’t. But…I’m not good at … soft things. I don’t know how to talk about any of this, I don’t know my place in any of this, because when I was four…” Her voice trailed off, and she tried again. “When I was four…” Her voice broke, and her shoulders shook – why was she even talking about this? How could this make him feel better? What was wrong with her?

“Hey,” Poe’s voice was more solid now. “Hey, you don’t need to tell me, honest. It means a lot that you’d even be willing to share.” Rey nodded and smiled at him, their eyes locking for the first time in the last few minutes. It was another moment before either spoke.

“Your mother must have been a hell of a woman,” Rey said after a time. “Because I’ve never met anyone like you, Poe Dameron.”

His smile broke across his face like the sun scattering clouds on a gloomy day. The warmth it caused in her gut was unimagined, palpable, real – the warmth of making him smile filled her up, and Rey swore she heard the arrival of spring, looking at his smile. She smiled back, and they, together, turned to look out the window once more.

The beat of the music from the party drifted down the hallway towards them, but they both ignored it as they gazed at the infinite heavens spilling out across the inky black sky.

Rey reached across the seat without looking, and slipped her hand into Poe’s.

She kept her eyes trained above, even when she felt him turn to look at her. Her ears heated up while he stared at her, but he said nothing; eventually, he returned his own eyes to the galaxy above them, his hand squeezing hers gently enough to be a dream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this might have to be nine chapters, what do you think?
> 
> Plan for right now:  
> Chapter 7: Spring/Hogsmeade/A Birthday  
> Chapter 8: Quidditch Final  
> Chapter 9: End of year exams
> 
> [but also, what if it were ten?]


	7. Comes in like a Lion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> March passes by, and Rey makes some discoveries and grows closer to a certain Hufflepuff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: this chapter does deal with Amortentia - one person makes a joke about using it on another person (horrifying, and definitely needs to be addressed)
> 
> WARNING: Rey discusses her childhood - warnings for child neglect/abuse (referenced, not detailed), abandonment, childhood trauma
> 
> WARNING: Mild cursing here and there.

Rey and Finn walked into Potions right at the bell on the first Monday in March. Mothma gave them a cool look over her cauldron, and Rey smiled apologetically while sliding into her open seat in the third row. Rose had saved a spot for her and Finn, and they set their books down as quietly as possible. Mothma cleared her throat, and everyone fell silent.

The oddly ageless head of Slytherin house, Mon Mothma was not a person to be taken lightly. When she spoke, everyone listened. No one doubted her, and not a single student had a bad word to say about her – a couple frightened or stressed words, maybe, some words of awe, but never a true complaint. She was too terrifyingly competent, too respectable, and too regal to inspire any dissent in the ranks. Rey thought she would have made an excellent General, in another life.

“Good afternoon, class,” Motha greeted, and the class murmured their greeting back. Rey breathed in as she spoke, and her spine stiffened – something strangely familiar was in the air, some scent she couldn’t quite place. It was…intoxicating. Finn frowned next to her and looked around as well. “We will be looking at a very peculiar potion today, one that is perhaps, the most powerful one we’ll examine all year, with the most potential for wickedness and damage.”

She paused and gave the cauldron in front of her a sharp stir – Rey watched, fascinated, as the steam rose up in a steady spiral. “This is the most potent love potion known to wizarding kind.”

A couple of nervous titters rose from the group, but Rey stared at the cauldron silently. “Is it Amortentia?” Rose had spoken, her hand high in the air.

Mothma smiled graciously at the girl and nodded. “It is,” she said. “And what characteristics does Amortentia have, Ms. Tico?”

“It replicates infatuation,” Rose said, her cheeks bright and eyes eager. Her hand lowered as she spoke, but she nearly bounced on her seat in her excitement. “It creates a dangerous obsession in whomever drinks it, usually. It looks like mother-of-pearl, the steam rises, well, like that” she gestured vaguely at the cauldron, “and…the smell…”

“Yes, the smell.” Mothma nodded and rolled her sleeves up. “Good work, Ms. Tico. Before we get into it, who can tell the class what they smell?”

A girl from Slytherin raised her hand, and Mothma allowed her to stand and answer. “It smells like chocolate,” the girl said eagerly. Rey frowned and took a deep breath again – nothing like chocolate. “And clean linen! And fresh snow.”

“Thank you, Robin.” Mothma smiled at the class, and she raised her hand to stop them from shifting around. “Did anyone catch anything different? Mr. Trooper?”

“Yeah.” Finn cleared his throat and stood up. “I smell broomstick polish, and vanilla. Oh! And some kind of flowery…something. Smells nice.” He sat back down quickly, and Rose patted him on the arm encouragingly. Rey’s brow furrowed – Finn smelled something entirely different than she did, and they were in roughly the same location, so she couldn’t guess that it was affected by distance from the potion.

“Ms. Kenobi?” Mothma had turned her attention to her. “I can tell you’re a little confused. Do you smell something different as well?”

“Yes ma’am.” Rey stood and gripped the desk while leaning forward. She saw the sheen Rose was talking about, the odd pearly colour. She decided she didn’t like it. “ I smell…well, it’s kind of like a bonfire in the woods. Almost like the smell of fall. And…something sharp, like…maybe cologne?” It was so very familiar, and she couldn’t piece together where she’d caught it before.

She sat back down, and Mothma gave the cauldron another hearty stir. “Three different answers – but who is correct?” No one dared answer. “Actually, all three are correct. Ms. Tico, perhaps you could tell us why?”

“Amortentia produces a smell that would be most attractive to the individual,” Rose explained. “Smells that remind them of something they love, or something they desire. The things they’re attracted to.”

“Perfect.” Mothma flipped the chalkboard over with a wave of her wand, and the students shuffled to grab their Advanced Potions textbooks and flip to the assigned page. A list of ingredients was up front, and with another flick of her wand, Mothma opened up the storage room for the advanced ingredients, the ones blocked to lower level students. “Now, your task today is to produce a sample of Amortentia – _and its antidote._ The student who produces the closest version of it gets this box of Chocolate Frogs!” The class elbowed each other and giggled, excited at the light-hearted competition. “It is a very tricky Potion, so you’ll need the full time. Go.”

Rey read through the instructions twice before moving – other students jogged to the side of the room to start collecting their ingredients. She looked up in time to see Armitage sweeping by, a collection of ingredients clutched in his reedy little arms, and she rolled her eyes.

“What d’you reckon Hux smells?” Finn muttered to her. He hadn’t moved either, electing to review the page as well before getting in the queue.

“Despair,” Rey intoned seriously. “The blood of his enemies.”

“Don’t forget _eau de fascism_ ,” Rose added, dumping a pile of things on the table. “Here, I grabbed enough for all of us.”

“I love you,” Finn said, scooping some towards himself.

“Mhm.” Rose patted him on the head and pulled her cauldron forward. “That won’t stop me from kicking your ass, Trooper.”

“Fair enough.” He grinned at his girlfriend, and then all three of them got to work.

After almost an hour, Rey found her hair was sticking to her forehead, made damp by the constantly rising steam from her cauldron. Mothma had stopped by their station a few times, and she made encouraging noises at Rose’s on the last pass. She made a few suggestions to Finn, and then stopped at Rey’s.

“Very nice work, Ms. Kenobi.” Mothma held her hand over the potion and felt the density of the steam. “Very, very nice work. We definitely have a contender here,” she announced loud enough for several students – including Armitage Hux, who looked disgruntled and was beet red – to hear before moving on.

Finn flashed her a thumbs up, and Rey snorted and kept working.

A group of Ravenclaws at the next table over were giggling about something, and nearing the end of her preparation, Rey found that her attention was able to drift more and grab on to what they were saying.

“…do you think one of us will win?” A girl asked excitedly.

“Probably not,” another one sighed. “But still, it’s a really cool thing to learn.”

“Really _helpful_.” Rey had stopped stirring and was just waiting for her potion to settle now, and she looked over to the girl who had just spoken. It was Mona, a pretty little thing, and she was smirking while stirring her cauldron. “If I get this right, maybe I’ll use it on Dameron.”

“That’s not funny,” Rey said sharply. The girls’ laughter dissolved, and they turned to look at her. Three of them had the decency to look ashamed, but the girl who had made the comment tossed her hair out of her face and raised her eyebrows at Rey.

“It’s a joke, obviously,” the other girl sneered.

“Like I said,” Rey said, walking over to their table, hackles raised. Her wand lay abandoned on her station behind her – her hand clenched in a fist. “It wasn’t funny. Amortentia is … it’s like a date rape drug, you shouldn’t joke about it at all.”

Mona rolled her eyes. “Yeah, right. You’re just pissed at the thought of someone besides yourself getting even a second of his attention.”

“Screw you,” Rey said coldly. Finn had noticed her at this point, and had come to stand at her shoulder, looking wary.

“Maybe I will slip him some,” Mona said, crossing over to stand in front of Rey, arms crossed. She smirked at the scowl on Rey’s face, and Finn caught her elbow before she could lash out and punch the other student. “Just so you can learn how to share.”

Rey felt her expression go blank, and she smiled eerily at Mona. The Ravenclaw tossed her hair out of her face one more time and went to her station once more, looking like she’d won. Rey leaned over the station under the pretense of looking at the contents of her cauldron, and then she took a deep breath, grabbed the cauldron, ignoring how hot the sides were, and dumped it out on Mona.

“Ms. Kenobi!” Mothma rushed over looking horrified, the first time she’d ever looked ruffled in Rey’s memory, while Mona screamed in shock. “What on earth are you doing?”

Rey opened her mouth to answer, but got distracted by Mona’s squawking. “Oh, get over yourself,” she snapped at the wailing girl. “It wasn’t even that hot.”

“Twenty points from Gryffindor,” Mothma barked, and she jabbed her finger at the door. “Now leave, and go straight to Professor Organa’s office.”

“But—” Finn protested, and Motha raised a warning hand at him.

“Not unless you want to join her, Mr. Trooper.” Finn’s mouth snapped shut, and he glared powerfully enough to warrant a detention, but Mothma was too busy siphoning the potion off Mona to see it. Rey grabbed her bag and kicked her bench under the table; she stormed out of the classroom, ignoring the pointed smirk from Armitage Hux, and stomped down the passageway towards the staircase.

 _Unfair,_ she snarled to herself. _Ridiculous. She makes horrible threats against someone’s safety, and I get in trouble? Absurd._ Whatever. It was worth the trouble she was about to be in – the look on Mona’s face when she dumped the cauldron over was something she’d never forget. The only real regret Rey had was that now Obi was going to get another lengthy, disappointed letter from the headmistress about her bad behavior.

As classes were still ongoing, Rey didn’t bump into anyone on her way to Organa’s office. Soon she was at the statue, and she tapped out the rhythm she remembered from her visit here with Poe, back when Windu had given her the prophecy and her life had become decidedly more messy. Rey stepped back and waited – but nothing happened. Sighing, she threw herself onto the stone seat that was tucked into the corner of the hallway and got ready to wait.

Half an hour later, during the break between classes, Rey had closed her eyes and was resting while she waited. Footsteps approached, and she got ready for the yelling session that was about to happen. Instead, a warm, familiar voice asked, “Do I even want to know?” and Rey sat up, startled.

Poe Dameron smiled at her, his brown eyes soft and kind, and she fought the urge to smooth her hair or straighten her skirt. “Uh.” Rey stumbled upright, clutching her bag, and she almost fell over – Poe reached out a steadying hand to her elbow, and she prayed she wasn’t blushing as hard as she thought she was. “Um. Probably not.”

Poe laughed brightly, and removed his hand from her elbow – not that she really wanted him to, she thought with a deeper blush – and that’s when she noticed it. The smell from the dungeon. Woody, and green, and sharp – her mouth fell open with surprise, and she entirely missed what Poe was saying. He shifted uncomfortably, and Rey shook her head to clear it.

“Sorry,” she laughed shakily, overwhelmed by her sudden realization. “Um, could you repeat that?”

“I said, Mothma sent me up here at the start of class to tell you that you were ‘free to go.’ And then I asked if you wanted to explain what that meant.”

“I might have dumped a potion on someone,” Rey said sheepishly. Poe wiped a hand over his face and shook his head at her, grinning. “She totally deserved it.”

“Yeah,” Poe laughed, and Rey’s stomach swooped like she was on her broomstick. “That’s what I got from Mothma, too. She said Finn and Rose and a couple Ravenclaws cleared up the issue, and while she wishes you’d learn a more healthy form of conflict resolution, she understands why you did it.”

“Well then,” Rey said faintly, clutching her books to her chest. “Now that that’s cleared up.” Poe smiled and turned to leave, but Rey reached out and snagged the sleeve of his robe. He turned around, obviously surprised. “D’you – I have a free period, do you want to, um,” she tucked her hair behind her ear and stared at the ground. “D’you want to go study outside?”

“I’d love to,” Poe said warmly, and Rey’s heart skipped a beat. “But…I have Potions, that’s why I even saw Mothma…”

“Oh, right,” Rey released him and put her hand on her temple. “Silly of me.”

“I’d totally be down for it, otherwise,” Poe insisted, and Rey pretended she didn’t see the honest regret in his face.

“No, no, it was silly,” Rey said again, somehow more mortified from his kindness. “Thanks for – thanks. I’ll see you around?” She squeaked out the last part and didn’t even wait for his answer, just scurried down the passageway feeling very mousey, and very small.

She ducked into the nearest girls’ bathroom and slammed the door behind her. A quick look told her she was alone in the bathroom, and she banged her head against a stall door and muttered, “What the hell, what the hell, what the hell.”

As much as she might want to, Rey couldn’t deny what the Amortentia told her – she had known for a while that she had a crush on Poe Dameron, she’d been fighting it since before Halloween. But _now,_ now she knew it went a lot deeper than that, and the spark the love potion had ignited was threatening to consume her entirely.

“I’m in love with him,” Rey said weakly, tears in her eyes at the horrifying prospect of it. “This is going to be terrible.”

“That’s the spirit dear,” a mournful ghost said before passing through the door next to her. Rey shook her head, pulled the door open – checked to make sure the coast was clear, and no earnest Hufflepuffs were waiting around to see if she was alright after her performance – and sprinted down the hallway towards the outdoors.

***

“ _Wizards First, Declares Group Calling Themselves Heirs to Vader,”_ Rey unfolded the paper and read it aloud at the breakfast table. Finn set his utensils down to stare at her in shock, and Rey continued reading. “ _The group now calling itself the First Order has one simple message to share with the Wizarding World – that wizard lives matter more than others, and that Muggles and magical creatures should secondary citizens in the world. This echoes the sentiment espoused by Vader himself, who declared that Magic is Might at the height of his reign of terror.”_ Rey slammed the paper down and took a swig of juice. “It’s awful.”

“You can say that again,” Finn said, eyes wide while he looked at the front page’s image. “Another attack on a Muggle village? That’s the fifth one this month, and we’re not even done with the second week, yet.”

“And those are just the ones they’re reporting,” Jess Pava said dully. She was sitting with Connix this morning, and she pointed at the paper. “Paige said that they’ve been dealing with Dark curses used on Muggles left and right. No massive attack, and no one taking credit for them, but people who have felt this way for a while feel…I don’t know, bolder now? Like, their little shitstain friends are out and about, being proud of how awful they are, so why not go out and hurt people, too?”

They stopped talking after that, distracted by the arrival of the rest of the mail, but Rey’s stomach churned too heavily for her to eat the rest of her breakfast.

After morning session, she had grabbed a couple apples and was planning on heading outside to read during her lunch break with Rose and Finn, when all three overheard a commotion down the hall. They exchanged a look before running towards the noise.

 A group of first years from various Houses – some with arms linked – were standing with their way blocked by Armitage Hux, Phasma, and Mitaka…and Ben Solo. The latter stood, bored, leaned against the wall, but the other three ‘Knights of Ren’ gleefully held parchment up, and Phasma had her hand outstretched towards the boy in front, whose ears were bright right.

“I need to see your family tree,” Phasma said primly. “If you want to pass.”

“I don’t need to show you anything,” the boy said hotly, and Rey felt a flare of pride for the small Hufflepuff. “Get out of our way.”

“Yeah,” another kid piped up, and Hux loomed over him, smirking.

“I don’t make the rules,” he drawled. “We were told to do this. So, either let us know where you stand, or you can’t pass through.”

“Get the hell out of their way,” Rey snapped. Ben’s head turned towards her so fast, Rey thought it might fall off. His face drained of colour, and Rey scowled at him before rounding on Hux, storming forward and jabbing her finger into his bony chest. “Who the hell do you think you are? No one in this castle cares about anyone’s family, no one of worth, really, and they don’t owe you anything.”

“Solo,” Hux said, his expression still one of contempt. “Control your little woman.”

“That’s it,” Rey snarled, drawing her fist back.

“Rey, no!” She groaned and turned to stare at the newly arrived Head Boy and Girl – Rose was slightly out of breath next to them. Obviously she’d run to inform them of the trouble brewing near the Great Hall. “He isn’t worth it.”

Huh. Not the reasoning she’d expect from Poe Dameron. He glared at Hux, whose expression became even more snobbishly gleeful.

“Leave them alone,” Jess ordered. “And ten points from Slytherin. Each. For spreading hateful nonsense about blood purity.”

Mitaka made an angry noise, but Phasma grabbed his arm and shook her head warningly. “Whatever, Pava,” the tall girl sneered. “It’s good to know where your loyalties lie. C’mon, boys.” She turned and marched away, haughtily, and Hux blew a kiss to Rey before following her.

Rey surged forward, fully intending on beating some sense into him, but Finn grabbed the back of her robe, and she flailed in space uselessly.

“You coming, Solo?” Hux called over his shoulder. Ben hadn’t moved since he’d seen Rey, clearly too petrified, but Rey shook her head at him, angry tears in her eyes.

“You’re not going with them, are you?” She felt like she was asking about more than just that moment. Finn released her, clearly less worried about her bashing Ben’s skull in.

“Rey.” It was the only word he said, and she felt the agony in it. It just made her angry – this was an easy choice for him to make, wasn’t it? He couldn’t just choose the right thing to do?

“Go on,” she said, her voice breaking. “Go with your _friends._ ” Rey spat the word out, and when Ben took a step towards her, she took a step back. “I can’t even look at you. Do you hear the things they’re saying?”

“It’s not like that,” Ben said desperately, but Rey turned on her heel, turned her back to him.

“Just go.” She felt him pause, but then he sighed mightily and walked in the direction his friends had gone.

Rey didn’t wait for any of the gathered crowd of first years, the Head Boy or Head Girl, or her friends to say something. She jogged away from the Great Hall and threw herself outside, crossing the grounds as quickly as she could, heading to her favorite spot by the lake.

It was unseasonably warm, and Rey relished the sunlight on her face while she walked briskly. Soon, she reached the tree at the lake’s edge and threw herself down among the exposed roots, backing up until she rested against the trunk, angry tears still in her eyes. The soft sound of the waves lapping at the shore briefly lulled her anger, and Rey wiped her eyes and steamed before trying to calm herself fully.

Peace was only there for a few minutes – soon, she heard someone walking up behind her. Figuring it was Finn, she turned to greet her friend. But, it was someone else.

Poe sat down across from her, ignoring the wet, sandy ground as he settled amongst the reeds and grass. “Hey,” he said softly. “Finn told me you’d be out here.” Rey nodded noncommittally and smiled at him, her lips quivering from the effort. “Don’t do that.” Poe’s eyes were kind enough to hurt. “Don’t smile if you don’t mean it.”

“Okay,” Rey whispered, voice still shaky. “Sorry, I just – I don’t know why he’s acting like this.”

“Who?” Poe asked, although he had to know.

“Ben,” she said, wiping her eyes again. “I don’t know why he’s being like this, why he’s hanging out with them.”

“I don’t know why you’re friends with him,” Poe said, with the least amount of tact she’d ever heard him muster. She looked at him in surprise, her sadness momentarily forgotten in the face of his ire. “He’s foul, Rey.”

“No he’s not,” she whispered, lacing her fingers together and staring down at them. “He’s really not.”

“You’ve forgiven him too much,” Poe said. “The things his friends do, and what he’s said … this year…” Rey realized that Jess must have told him what Ben shouted at her that day, when he accused Poe of only being kind to her because he wanted to sleep with her. She winced, the wound still fresh, especially in the wake of her realization about her feelings for Poe. “…You’re under no obligation to forgive him, Rey.”

“He was my first friend,” Rey pointed out. Poe probably wasn’t aware of that. “And yeah, he’s…he’s been weird this year, but he’s just going through a rough time.” She wasn’t really sure why she was defending him. It felt more like defending herself, honestly.

“Yeah, okay.” Poe looked disbelieving, and Rey wondered why he’d followed her out here if he was just going to argue with her. It was unlike him to be argumentative like this, it was _her_ job to be stubborn. “I might believe that, but Rey, he’s almost eighteen. He’s almost an adult – he can’t just hide behind bad behavior and say it’s a phase, that he doesn’t mean it. Those first years…their whole year is going to be stained by that interaction, and he stood by and let it happen.”

“I know,” Rey said weakly.

“He might not really believe in what they’re saying, but he’s not stopping them, and he’s choosing to hang out with awful people,” Poe continued.

“I _know,_ ” Rey insisted.

“Do you? You know what his friends call people like me?” Poe looked incensed, and Rey examined the typically mild boy’s face. “They call us _halfbreeds,_ Rey. And if my mother had been a Muggle too, they’d call me a _Mudblood_.” She flinched at the slur, and Poe dragged a hand through his hair, a righteous sort of frustration on his face.

“But…” Rey shook her head. “No, you’re right, his friends _are_ terrible, and I try talking to him about it all the time…but Ben doesn’t feel that way about…about Muggleborns, or Muggle-Wizard families.”

“Oh yeah?” He looked highly doubtful, and Rey’s gut churned from what she was about to divulge. Not her blood status itself, necessarily, but everything behind it.

It was time.

“Ben wouldn’t care about that because _I’m_ a…a … Mudblood.” She forced herself to say the hateful word, revulsion curling inside her even forming it with her mouth.

“What?” Poe’s face twisted up as he thought about it. “But…Obi Wan Kenobi is your grandfather.”

Rey shook her head miserably and leaned heavily against the tree, pulling her knees up to her chest. Poe crossed his legs and rested his elbows on his knees. His posture indicated that he was listening, but he didn’t push her to explain. Rey took a steadying breath, and then another.

“He’s not,” she said softly. “He…Obi took me in when I was a child. He found me starving, picking through his trash cans.” Poe’s eyes shifted downward, and she saw that he was trying to hide his intense shock and sympathy. It felt too much like pity. She was glad he wasn’t looking at her straight on. Rey summoned some of her courage and kept going. “I had been on my own for a few years, and…and he had the decency to try and befriend me, and not call the cops. It took me a few weeks to even come up to his front porch, but he didn’t stop trying.”

He had left chocolate, that last day, day sixteen of her haunting his yard, and the idea of a sweet had been too much – Rey had walked up and taken it, and when the old man who sat on his front porch swing smiled at her, she planted her feet squarely and allowed him to ask her a few questions. She hadn’t answered, of course, but she waited five minutes to bolt.

“I had no idea,” Poe said softly. Rey realized she had stopped talking over a minute ago, lost in her memory. She shook her head and stared out over the lake.

“No one here knows,” she admitted bitterly. “I’ve only ever told Finn. Leia and Han know, of course, and I imagine Maz has some idea because she knows Obi never had children, but…the only student who knows besides Finn is Ben.”

“Oh.” Poe squirmed uncomfortably, and Rey winced. This was…probably the worst sort of thing to bring up to the person she was definitely in love with. Oh well. Into the fire.

“Ben only knows because he came to stay with Obi that summer,” Rey continued her explanation. Her throat felt dry, sitting in the spring sunlight, talking about a past she’d rather bury, but she pushed through it. “I know…I know he’s been terrible this year, and he’s been really awful to me sometimes as well, you’re right. But I have to believe that it’s just…just a phase.”

“It’s hard when people change,” Poe said slowly, carefully. “But it doesn’t matter how nice he was when you were kids if he’s treating you like…crap now.”

He must have been avoiding the word _garbage_ after her story, Rey thought to herself humourlessly. She shook her head – she might have been shaking it this whole time – and kept talking.

“I … I know. Believe me, I know. But it wasn’t even that he was _nice_ to me, Poe. He was … he was everything to me. He was my first friend. He met me that summer, and I could tell Obi was nervous because I’d only just stopped snapping, literally, at him, and I hadn’t spoken since he found me. Not a word in eight months. But Ben just smiled at me and took my hand and showed me all his favorite toys. He told me it didn’t matter if I wasn’t ready to speak because he could wait, and his mom had told him that quiet people were the best listeners. He told me _everything._ ”

It had been the start of their strange bond, Rey knew. Her own inherent magic mingling with Ben’s emerging powers – after what she’d seen during DADA before winter holiday, Rey had a feeling that she and the young Solo had more than a few things in common when it came to untapped power. So, she tried to tell Poe, haltingly, still trying to suss out the details for herself.

“Ben…it was like he could read my emotions, and I could read his. It still happens sometimes, but our friendship was…intense. He translated for me, all summer. Told Obi that I didn’t like lima beans, told his mother that her braids scared me, told his father to tell me my favorite story, the one about his best friend, the smuggler, who became Minister for Magic. Ben saw everything in me, and I saw everything in him. It was…so important.”

Poe’s expression was unreadable, and Rey flinched and stared at her hands. “I know it doesn’t make sense,” she whispered. “And I know it doesn’t excuse how he acts now, and I know…it might seem weird or…or abnormal. But I was so lost before I met Ben. He – he taught me to read, Poe, and he told me so many stories while I was waiting to get the words for myself. Imagine, being almost eight years old and unable to read. But he didn’t make fun of me once – stood up for me more than a few times when kids made fun of me at school – and he helped me, taught me, as best he could. He has a good heart,” Rey finished, wiping at her eyes, feeling incredibly drained. “I know we don’t see it…very much … now, but I’ve _seen_ it. There’s good in him, I know it.”

She looked up and locked eyes with the Hufflepuff, daring him to mock her. Poe looked thoughtful, though, and nodded once.

“I hope you’re right,” he said gently. “I really do. But Rey, have you thought about what you’re going to do if he doesn’t turn away from the choices he’s making right now?”

“No.” Rey admitted, staring out over the lake again, avoiding eye contact for the time being. “I’ll…I hope I know what to do if that time comes.” She cleared her throat and added, “My whole life has been people walking away from me. My parents sold me for drug money, none of my friends stuck around from primary school, I push everyone, and I mean _everyone,_ away – Ben’s been…constant. He’s always there. And I don’t know how to throw that away.”

Poe’s hands folded and unfolded and refolded about ten times while she said her last part, and when she finished, his foot slid out to knock against her own. She smiled at him, the expression certainly looking monstrous with how puffy her eyes were, and Poe returned it – she saw that his own eyes were red, and he cleared his throat and pushed some hair out of his face.

“Is it alright –” He coughed and shrugged, staring at his lap while he said, quickly, “WoulditbealrightifIhuggedyou.”

“Oh.” So he didn’t find her totally disgusting, now. That was reassuring. “Um. Yeah, that’d be fine.” Poe grinned at her, sweet even in its enthusiasm, and he rose up to his knees and shuffled over. Rey scooted to make room for him at the tree trunk, and he settled next to her. His arm swung up and around her shoulders, and Rey leaned into it eagerly, snuggling into his side, her head resting on his shoulder. Once again, she caught the scent from Mothma’s classroom, and she pointedly ignored the way it made her ears burn, as it was the most potent she’d ever smelled it.

His heart thudded, strong and quick, under her ear – oddly quick, she mused for a second, before she blushed deeper. He was nervous. She could feel it suddenly, in the way his fingers twitched on her upper arm, the way his heart pounded, the way he held his body almost stiffly – like he was debating whether or not to hold her closer.

“No one hugged me for three years,” Rey commented. Poe flinched, and she mentally berated herself before continuing. “Uh, I just meant – I really, really like being hugged. You don’t have to…um, worry, about it.” Poe relaxed very obviously, and then his other arm came up and he laced his fingers together, enclosing her in a comforting but loose embrace.

A breeze off the lake ruffled her hair, and Poe laughed softly when some of it must have hit him in the face. “This is nice,” Rey said sleepily. “I like this.”

“Me too,” Poe whispered. She was so, so tired from their conversation, and her hectic week, and she found herself, mortifyingly, dozing off. She jolted awake and muttered an apology to the solid wall of Poe’s chest, but he hummed in disagreement. “You can sleep,” he said. “I’ll wake you up for dinner.”

“Wake me up if you get uncomfortable,” Rey corrected with a yawn. She breathed in deeply a few times as she faded away, letting the smell of firewood and forest wash over her comfortingly as she fell into dreams not too different from her reality.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (another chapter appears in the chapter count?!?!)
> 
> Next chapter:  
> A Trip to Hogsmeade  
> A New Face  
> Pranks for Days  
> The start of Easter Holidays


	8. Out Like a Lamb

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After an interesting visit to Hogsmeade, Rey begins her spring holiday.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is almost all fluff, for once!

On the third Saturday in March, a spectacularly beautiful day, Rey prepared to walk down to Hogsmeade by herself. Finn and Rose had excused themselves – Finn was sick, and Rose was taking care of him, “the big baby,” she’d said with an affectionate roll of her eyes – but she wanted to pick up some chocolate at Honeyduke’s, and a few more Sneaking Creepers from Zonko’s. Armitage had been getting under her skin even more with his increasing blood purity fervor, and she felt some retaliation against the Knights of Ren was more her duty than ever.

So, with a bright red scarf wrapped around her neck over her favorite blue jumper, Rey marched down to Hogsmeade and enjoyed the fresh air. She spun on her heel in the middle of the stream of students headed down to the village and waved in the general direction of Gryffindor Tower before turning and almost skipping through the grass.

Honeyduke’s was packed, but Rey managed to buy her caramels and chocolate bars, and even grabbed a couple ginger cubes for Finn, in hopes that it would clear his sinuses somewhat. Humming to herself while she stepped back out into the gentle sunlight, she started towards Zonko’s, but a snide voice caught her attention, and she froze.

“What do you think that sort of trash is doing _here_?” Armitage Hux was skulking up ahead of her, Susan Phasma and Arnie Mitaka flanking him. They were all staring towards the front of Madam Puddifoot’s. Rey looked over as well, and her heart seized in her chest at the sight of a man wearing a nice button down shirt, a leather jacket, jeans, and sneakers. A Muggle, then.

“Perhaps we should let him know who’s welcome here, and who isn’t,” Phasma sneered. “How did he even get in here, anyway?”

“Don’t you know?” Rey asked calmly. All three startled and turned to glare at her. “That’s one of Lando Calrissian’s deputy ministers. He’s very, very high up.”

“What?” Hux spat. “What’s his name, then?”

“Todd,” Rey answered blithely, adjusting her scarf. “Todd Malkin. What, you’ve never met him?” She fixed Hux with a condescending look. “I guess if your father isn’t high up enough…”

“No,” Hux spluttered. “No, of course he has. I haven’t met him, is all.” He gave Rey an appraising look and then shook his head. “C’mon, Susan, Arnold. The smell is getting to me.”

“What smell?” Mitaka asked, ever slow on the uptake.

Hux sniffed deeply. “Blood traitor.” With one last disparaging glance, he swept away, his friends hot on his heels. Rey rolled her eyes – if only Hux knew what the ‘smell’ _really_ was…but part of her was relieved. If he still thought she was Pureblood, like Obi, then…Ben hadn’t spilled her secret. Even in their current rough patch, he hadn’t turned on her.

The Muggle was still sitting outside the tea shop, checking his watch now and then. Rather than let him sit there as an obvious target to Hux and further questions (she wasn’t sure where that lie had come from, but she was thankful it had worked so well), she walked towards the tea shop, her shoulders set.

“Hello,” she greeted him when she’d reached his table.

He looked up, and Rey sucked in a breath – she knew that face. The man was handsome in a movie star kind of way; he had a broad nose and a kind smile, laughter lined the area near his brown eyes, and there was silver in his beard and once-dark hair. He was in his late thirties, or maybe early forties, and while his face was slightly more narrow, his eyes a little closer together, Rey knew without a doubt –

“Are you Poe’s dad?” She asked, oddly breathless.

“Yes!” The man leapt to his feet and held out his hand. Rey took it, still feeling somehow wrong-footed. “Kes Dameron. Pleased to meet you! And you are?”

“Rey Kenobi,” she answered quietly, as the firm handshake ended. Mr. Dameron’s eyebrows shot up his forehead, and his grin became even wider.

“ _The_ Rey Kenobi?” He asked, delighted. Rey blushed and shrugged. Mr. Dameron gestured to an empty chair across from his seat. “Sit, sit. Let me get you some tea!” Exuberance poured out of the man, and Rey stumbled into the offered chair, unsure of how else to respond in the face of so much enthusiasm.

“You know who I am?” She asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

“Of course,” Mr. Dameron smiled as he poured her cup, and he tapped the saucer towards her. “Poe tells me about all his friends.” Rey’s blush wasn’t getting any better – Poe thought they were friends then? Good enough friends to talk about her to his family? She felt weirdly honored, and she squirmed in her seat.

“I thought it was because he was always complaining about all the trouble I get into,” Rey said self-deprecatingly.

Mr. Dameron roared in laughter. “No, no, he does that too,” he said, waving his hand. Rey winced, her fear confirmed. “But, between you and me,” he leaned in conspiratorially, and Rey found herself mimicking the movement, “He likes it. Keeps him on his toes.” Rey was slightly mollified by the idea, and Mr. Dameron chortled to himself as he poured his own cup of tea.

“What brought you to Hogsmeade today, Mr. Dameron?” Rey asked politely, after they’d exchanged some comments about how the school year was going.

“You don’t know?” Poe’s father smiled oddly at her. “It’s Poe’s birthday.”

“What?” Rey said softly, eyes wide. Her hand flew to the locket he’d given her at Christmas. “I – I had no idea. He didn’t say.” She wracked her brain, but no – they’d even eaten dinner together last night, and he hadn’t said a word. Mortifyingly, she felt tears burn at her eyes.

“Poe doesn’t like a lot of attention,” Mr. Dameron assured her, looking alarmed and setting his teacup down to reach across the table. He clasped one of her hands with both of his and smiled at her kindly. “He doesn’t like to make a big deal out of anything.”

“Still, I wish I’d known,” Rey said, smiling back through her embarrassment. “I would have liked to get him something.”

“It’s not too late,” Mr. Dameron said with another airy wave of the hand. “He loved your Christmas present.”

“What?” Rey asked, eyes wide. The only thing she’d given him at Christmas was…She blushed to the roots of her hair, but Mr. Dameron didn’t see, too busy checking his watch.

“He wouldn’t tell me what it was, of course,” Mr. Dameron rolled his eyes and squinted down the street, both ways. “Just said it was the best gift he ever received.” He shrugged and smiled at her. “Did you see him on your way down here? He was supposed to be here twenty minutes ago.”

“I think I spotted him up near the gates. He probably got caught up helping someone,” Rey said. “I can get him, if you want.”

“No, don’t trouble yourself,” Mr. Dameron said hastily. “This is very pleasant, don’t worry.”

“It won’t be an issue, sir,” Rey said, pulling her wand out. “Here.” She focused on a happy memory, her mind skipping through a couple before landing on one. The surge of feeling in her gut had her raising her wand and reciting, “ _Expecto Patronum!_ ”

Her Patronus erupted from her wand, fully formed even in the bright daylight, and Rey smiled sadly to herself when she realized why that particular memory had proven to be so strong. Mr. Dameron exclaimed in delight, and she leaned in to speak to the lioness. “Go find Poe Dameron. Tell him: ‘Rey and your father are at the tea shop. Please come at your earliest convenience.’” The lioness bowed and sprinted off towards the entrance to Hogsmeade.

“How does that work?” Mr. Dameron asked excitedly. “Sorry, it’s just, Poe can’t do magic at our house because the Statute—”

“He has to be at a registered witch or wizard’s residence to perform or practice magic,” Rey finished, a tug of regret and resentment towards the law yanking at her gut. “Ridiculous. Um, that’s a Patronus. They’re for warding off Dementors, really – the creepy things that guard the wizard prison and feed off despair and hopelessness – they’re Happiness in magic form, I guess. You use a really powerful memory, a joyful one, and it comes out to protect you from sadness.”

“I like that,” Mr. Dameron said, smiling and settling in his chair once more. “Is it too personal if I asked what memory you used?”

“The day my papa adopted me,” Rey lied easily, smiling at Mr. Dameron.

“Lovely,” the older man said, looking pleased as he refilled their cups.

Rey felt a little uneasy for lying – truthfully, it was the memory she usually summoned when conjuring the Patronus, but today -   the memory of Poe Dameron holding her under her favorite tree while the wind played with their hair had allowed her to create a fully corporeal Patronus. She shivered in the light breeze and returned to small talk with Mr. Dameron.

A little more than five minutes later, Poe sprinted around the corner, wild-eyed and out of breath. He looked vaguely panicked at the sight of Rey and his father laughing together, and he stumbled to a halt at their table.

“Sorry,” he said, heaving for breath and clutching his side. “Sorry, sorry – a couple second years tried to sneak in, had to – had to sort that out.”

“Fun-sucker,” Mr. Dameron said, exchanging a grin with Rey. “What if they wanted to drink some tea?”

“But – but the rules,” Poe said, sounding exhausted as he collapsed in a chair. “They can go in the fall. They have to have a signed permission form, Dad, they can’t just—”

“I’m messing with you, mijo,” Mr. Dameron said.

“Happy birthday,” Rey said shyly. Poe stared at her, his cheeks still pink from running. “I – I didn’t know, your father told me.” She tried to keep the accusation out of her voice (she doubted Poe had any idea when her birthday was, after all, not that she had a real one of those anyway).

“Yeah,” Poe said, dragging a hand through his hair in that now very familiar gesture of nervousness. “Yeah, I’m eighteen today.”

“A man,” Mr. Dameron said, clapping his son on the shoulder and smiling with an impossible fondness. “My boy’s a man.”

“Stop it,” Poe muttered, giving his father’s arm a half-hearted shrug. He didn’t look irritated though, and Rey felt a rush of affection towards him.

“Here, I’ll let you two get to it,” Rey said awkwardly, standing up.

“No, stay!” Mr. Dameron protested, gesturing at her seat. “We were just getting to know each other!”

Rey shook her head, but Poe caught her wrist, and her breath caught in her throat. “Stay?” He whispered, brown eyes warm and mesmerizing. Rey nodded quietly and took her seat once more. Poe smiled at her, a real, soft, slow smile that ran through her like warm syrup, and she returned it shyly. He still hadn’t released her – his hand covered hers on the table, and Rey flipped her hand without thinking, their fingers lacing naturally, her freckled skin next to his tan skin, matching callouses from broomsticks sliding together.

Blushing furiously, she looked up to see Mr. Dameron grinning wildly at the two of them. Poe shot his father a challenging look, and the older man cleared his throat and started talking about football.

Rey spent the next hour in the sunlight listening to the two men talk, sometimes chiming in with her own thoughts, always happily answering one of Mr. Dameron’s enthusiastic questions. She felt oddly warm and happy throughout, accepted, wanted – at one point, the waitress came to hand their plates of food around, and Poe let go of her hand, only to grab it again the second his plate was on the table. He ate left-handed, and kept smiling at her during the meal.

Mr. Dameron gave her a tight hug when she stood reluctantly to head back to the castle. She had a study session at two p.m., and had to walk up to make the time.

“It was so lovely to finally meet you,” Mr. Dameron said. And then, quietly, in her ear, “I can see why he’s so wild about you.” Rey blinked, startled, and then turned to Poe, who smiled sheepishly at her. She prayed he hadn’t heard his father’s last comment before offering him a quick hug.

“Happy birthday,” she said sweetly.

“Thanks,” he muttered, rubbing his neck. “Thanks for sitting with us, it meant a lot to my dad.” He grinned at the ground. “And to me.”

“Of course.” Rey fought the urge to kiss him on the cheek again (if that was really the best gift he’d ever gotten, a dizzying idea), and she turned and walked up to the castle, her steps light and cheery.

***

The next few weeks passed by pleasantly and quickly, and the days grew warmer and noticeably longer. Soon, it was the end of the term, and the students prepared to return home for the two week spring holiday.

She and Ben had started speaking again, hesitantly, and she was happy to know that he’d be staying at Hogwarts over the break to spend time with his parents. She’d even given him a relieved hug when he told her he had no intention of spending the vacation with Armitage or Phasma.

“Your dad’s going to be so happy,” Rey said, squeezing him tight.

“Always an optimist,” Ben teased, sounding more like his normal self. The hug lingered to the point where it became awkward, and Rey was the one to step away and grab her bag, offering one last wave before jogging down to the train station to meet up with her friends.

Rey made actual plans to ride the train back with them, rather than wait to the last second and just hop on – and on that morning, she found herself in a compartment with Finn, Rose, Jess, and Poe.

By the time the train pulled away from the station, she and Finn had started a game of Exploding Snap, and Jess and Poe grinned indulgently at them while trading notes for their upcoming NEWTs. Rose took turns playing with Rey and Finn, and quizzing Jess and Poe, but about an hour in, Jess stood to start her rounds of the train.

“Let’s hope none of the first years are trying to drown each other in the toilet again,” Jess said, rolling her eyes and brushing some crumbs from her Cauldron Cake off her robes. “Fingers crossed.” She swept out with a wave.

Finn and Rey resumed their game, but soon Rose yawned, and they paused. “You need a nap, Tico?” Finn asked, setting the cards down. “We can be quiet.”

“No, no,” Rose said with another yawn. “Don’t worry about me.” Finn snorted and walked to where she was sitting.

“Allow me to be your human pillow,” he said grandly, sitting down and offering her his shoulder. Rose snuggled in happily without another protest, and within a minute was fast asleep. “I should be worried that she falls asleep so quickly, right?” Finn whispered over to Rey and Poe. Rey was still on the floor of the compartment, leaning back against the seat, and Poe sat up on the bench, his knee at Rey’s shoulder.

“Seems like an enviable skill,” Poe said, shrugging. Rey looked up at him and laughed quietly. “What, it takes me hours to fall asleep sometimes!”

“Finn falls asleep quickly too,” Rey said, jerking her chin at her friend.

Finn, whose eyelids had already started drooping, spasmed slightly and sat upright. “Do not,” he muttered, settling back against his seat with a mutinous look. “Lies.”

He was asleep a minute later. Rey giggled and then stretched out her legs, her back a little cramped from sitting on the floor for so long. Rose had stretched out on her side of the compartment, which meant the only spot left was next to –

“Here,” Poe said, patting the seat next to him. “Come sit here, if you’d like.” Rey smiled at him and stood, stretching her neck and back out before plopping down next to him. Sleepiness was obviously in the air, for she yawned and then blinked.

“Sorry,” she whispered. Poe shook his head as if to say _don’t worry_.

He bit his lip nervously and looked out the window before turning to smile at her. “I – I can be a good human pillow, too,” he joked, his voice cracking slightly in the middle. His cheeks turned a bright red under his eyes, and it was terribly endearing.

“Yeah?” Rey asked, already snuggling in. “Huh, what’dyou know. You do make a good pillow.” He really did. His shoulders were broad with enough muscle that she felt supported and comfortable. Their arms were bumping together a little awkwardly though – with a soft whisper of _here,_ Poe looped his arm through hers, their forearms entwining, and grabbed her hand. It adjusted their position well enough that she was now supremely comfortable.

“Is this okay?” Poe asked softly, his cheek resting on top of her head.

“Yes,” Rey answered quickly, afraid he’d pull away when she felt so warm and pleasantly sleepy. “This is great.” It was. It was so great. She also felt a little bit like throwing up, but that was fine, that was…probably normal. She prayed Poe wasn’t a skilled Legilimens, and he couldn’t hear just how verymuchinlove with him she was because that would make this a little awkward, right?

Her heart staggered when lips pressed into the top of her head. “I think it’s great too,” Poe whispered into her hair. Rey smiled as much as the fluttering in her stomach allowed her to, but eventually the lulling motion of the train rocked her to sleep.

Some time later, she woke up to Jess and Poe whispering to each other.

“…I’ll give you all my chocolate frogs,” Poe was saying, barely audible over the sound of the train. Rey kept her eyes closed, still half between dream and reality, Poe’s shoulder terribly comfortable.

“Tempting,” Jess hissed back. “But not enough, Dameron.”

 _Was she blackmailing him?_ Rey wondered, feeling a little less sleepy at the thought.

“Come on,” Poe moaned. “I’ll … do your rounds for a month, Pava, just take my rounds today.”

“A month?” Jess whispered. “That’s funny, the NEWTS are just over a month away. I think six weeks would be more sufficient, and more useful to me.”

“Fine,” Poe muttered. “So you’ll do them?”

“You won’t have to move,” Jess promised, and Rey’s eyes opened at last.

She was still a little confused about what she had heard, and she rubbed her eyes yawning, sitting up from Poe’s shoulder, sure she’d imagined the small squeak of protest he made.

“Did we wake you?” Poe asked, sounding guilty.

“Hmmm?” Rey shook her head after thinking about his question. “No, no. Don’t you have rounds, though?”

Jess looked guilty at that. “I can take them,” she offered. “You don’t have to move.”

“No, I need to stay awake or I’ll never fall asleep tonight.” Rey smiled at Poe, who merely stared at her. Something was in his eyes, something she wasn’t familiar with, and she hesitantly squeezed his hand, still holding hers. Poe squeezed back and let her go.

“Okay.” He stood reluctantly and pulled on his robes with his badge proudly displayed. Rey smiled at the emblem, the badge that she’d hated at the beginning of the year. Now, weirdly enough, she found it oddly…attractive? _Jeez, that couldn’t be good._ “See you guys in an hour.”

Finn was awake too, Rey realized with a mortified blush. He grinned at her evilly as the door slid shut behind the Head Boy.

“Seduction through drooling,” he said as soon as Poe had walked away. “Never seen that before.”

Rey stretched and stood up, holding her duffel bag. She took a step towards Finn, yawned slightly, and then smacked him in the face with it.

He howled in protest and grabbed his own bag, trying to swing it at her without displacing Rose (who dozed on as though nothing were happening around her – Rey really didn’t know how she did it, probably just the chronic exhaustion of the study-happy Ravenclaw).

“Don’t make me take ten points from Gryffindor,” Jess joked lazily, staring out the window and not even looking at them. Rey and Finn exchanged a series of increasingly rude hand gestures before settling back in their seats.

Poe returned by the early afternoon, and they ate lunch from the trolley. The rest of the afternoon passed cheerfully enough, with Rose staying awake after lunch, and the three friends giggling and planning a sure-to-be-disastrous prank on the Knights of Ren upon their return (this was, of course, after Jess and Poe both left for their joint patrolling rounds).

With all five friends once more in the compartment and changed back into Muggle clothing, they pulled into King’s Cross a little after five in the evening. For the first time in memory, Rey wished the journey had been a little longer, if only to…she shook her head and shouldered her bag at the same time Poe reached up to tug Jess and Rose’s luggage down. The movement threw a piece of jewelry outside his t-shirt, and Rey leaned in to examine it before she could think twice.

It was a silver ring on the end of a chain, and she stared at it while Poe passed the luggage to the appropriate people. “That’s beautiful,” she commented, resisting the urge to poke at it. “Where did you get that?”

“Huh? Oh,” Poe blushed and grabbed the ring, holding it in his palm and towards Rey. She stepped in a little closer until they were almost shoulder to shoulder. “This was my mother’s wedding ring. My dad gave it to me on my birthday.”

“Yeah?” Rey reached out hesitantly to trace her finger around it, and Poe made no move to pull it away from her. “I haven’t noticed you wearing it.”

“Well, I’m usually wearing a sweater and a shirt, and robes,” Poe joked, still not moving away from her. “Gets a little difficult to even see me under all that.”

“Mmm,” Rey hummed noncommittally, not wanting to admit that she could see Poe perfectly well under ‘all that,’ thank you very much. She instead folded Poe’s hand carefully around the ring. “It really is lovely.”

“Yeah,” Poe tucked it under his shirt and gave her a strange smile. “My dad said I was ready to have it. I’m supposed to give it to my partner, one day.”

“Oh,” Rey said faintly, at a loss for words. “That’s—”

“Are you two coming?” Finn hollered from down the corridor. “Or did you want to take another ten hour train ride?”

They both laughed guiltily and set off towards the platform. Once they disembarked, it was time to say goodbye, and Jess gave everyone a hug first before jogging towards the exit, where she’d take a train home to see her parents and sisters.

Next, Rose and Finn took off. Rose hugged Rey, yawning once more, and exchanged a bizarrely complex handshake with Poe while Finn and Rey laughed.

“See you in two weeks!” Finn said, hugging Rey tight. “Try to get some rest.” He looked over his shoulder to where Rose was still standing and laughing with Poe. “And I know you’re trying, Peanut – I really do think Dameron’s a good guy. You’re right to give him a chance.” He said the last part in a whisper, and finished with a brief kiss on Rey’s cheek. She returned it and waved forlornly at him – he shouldered his bag once more, grabbed Rose by the hand, and with one last wave, they vanished into King’s Cross to meet up with Paige.

“Guess this is goodbye,” Poe said, his hand tight on the strap of his bag. He scratched the back of his head while smiling at the ground (or at his feet – it was hard to say).

“Guess so,” Rey said, suddenly very amused and very nervous. She stepped in closer and held out her arms –

Poe grabbed one of her hands and shook it. Rey laughed, brightly, at the absurdity of it. Poe looked mortified, so she stopped laughing and shook her head; they fidgeted nervously, and then Poe held out his own arms – Rey considered shaking _his_ hand, to tease him, but oddly enough, she didn’t want to tease him – and Rey walked into a warm and comforting hug. It was much longer than the one she had shared with Rose, or with Finn, and the minimal height difference between them meant her chin rested perfectly on his shoulder.

They separated eventually, and now stood with less than a foot of space between them. Rey fidgeted with her bag, her heart thundering in her ears as something shifted in the air between them.

“Happy Easter, Poe,” she whispered. Poe nodded quietly, his gaze shifting subtly, and she blushed when she realized what it was his eyes kept flickering to – Poe Dameron was looking at her mouth. Oh.

“Happy Easter, Rey,” he answered, and she shivered – was his voice that much deeper than normal, or was she imagining it? It was as though his eyes were magnetic, for Rey found herself drawing up slightly, leaning forward, up on to her toes, and she couldn’t imagine the way he leaned in, the way his hand reached out as though he could pull her in, and her heart beat so powerfully it was almost affecting her vision, her nerves darkening the corners of what she could see until all she could see was Poe Dameron, growing closer, and –

“Mijo! Poe!” They both startled apart and turned to see Kes Dameron, waving cheerfully from across the platform. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere, come on!” Rey waved shyly at Mr. Dameron, who beamed at her. “Hey! Would you mind pushing my son this way? We’re going to miss our bus!”

“Sorry,” Poe muttered out of the corner of his mouth. Rey felt slightly amused through all the embarrassment of Mr. Dameron almost seeing…whatever that was going to be. A vision flashed through her mind of what could have happened if Poe’s dad hadn’t showed up – Poe crowding her against a brick wall (how did they get there? Unclear), his hands framing her face, or maybe in her hair, his lips pressed fervently to hers (how did lips move when kissing? Unclear, would require research) – and she blushed more deeply than before.

“Our car broke down,” Poe whispered, dragging his hand through his hair as they took some half-hearted steps towards his dad. “And I’m usually the one who fixes it – my dad’s a little hopeless about that kind of thing – so we’re taking the bus home.”

“Oh,” Rey said faintly. Now a different vision was in her mind, Poe Dameron in his garage, sleeves rolled up on his white shirt, or maybe in a sleeveless shirt, grease on his forearms, his hair pushed back – she gulped and changed her train of thought swiftly, feeling overheated on the platform. “I like fixing cars, too.”

“Yeah?” Poe grinned at her and nudged her with his elbow. “Look at all the things we have in common, Kenobi.” He waggled his eyebrows at her, and she smiled at him tentatively. “I’ll see you in two weeks?”

Odd to phrase it like a question. “Yeah, of course,” Rey said, her nerves winning out. “Um. Your dad’s – he looks very…um, eager.”

“Yeah, he does that,” Poe grumbled. He waved at her before he walked forward to his bouncing father. She almost had time to feel sad, but then,

“Rey!” She turned and saw Obi, standing there in his favorite brown jumper, a warm and kind smile on his face. Tears rushed to her eyes inexplicably, and she sprinted towards him, towards home, and threw her arms around him.

“Obi!” She exclaimed, her face buried in his chest. He pressed a kiss into her temple and laughed wetly.

“Yes, it’s me,” he said, stroking a hand over her hair. “Who were you talking to, little one?”

She pulled away and paused, her eyes darting to where Poe was hugging his dad (so, no matter their bus schedule, they had time to hug – the thought made her feel warm), and then she cleared her throat. “Papa, there’s someone I want you to meet.” She grabbed Obi’s hand and dragged him over to the Dameron men.

And that was how Poe and Kes Dameron met Obi Wan Kenobi. Mr. Dameron was delighted to meet the man his wife had spoken so highly of, and Poe had almost literal stars in his eyes while he met his childhood hero.

He managed to squeak out that Obi was his inspiration for wanting to be an Auror – Rey rolled her eyes at how chuffed her guardian was at that – and then it was a pretty easy decision after Mr. Dameron mentioned the bus –

“Well, where you do you all live?” Obi Wan asked, fiddling with something in his pocket.

“Over in Kent,” Mr. Dameron answered, pulling out a map of the buses. He pointed at their stop, and Obi peered at it.

“Why, that’s not even a quarter of an hour from where Rey and I live!” Obi declared, grinning. “Why don’t we just give you a ride?”

Rey stared at Obi in almost horror – she was half-excited at the prospect of more time with Poe, half-terrified of any childhood stories he might be able to share during the ride home. As Obi began to discuss the best route home with Mr. Dameron, Poe chiming in at moments while they crowded around the map, Rey saw the morning’s paper sticking out from Obi’s jumper. She peered at it, unnoticed, and her heart thudded in an entirely unpleasant way from the headline.

“ _Muggles Targeted in Series of Attacks in Southern England_ ”

She looked up at Obi, chatting away animatedly with a Muggle and his son, and felt tears in her eyes as she realized that even after a lifetime of service, her papa wasn’t done protecting people.

“Where did you park, Obi Wan?” Mr. Dameron asked as they headed towards the street.

Obi fished around in his pocket and pulled out what he’d been fiddling with – a shrunk down car. “Why would I ever pay for parking?” He explained, and Mr. Dameron roared delightedly with laughter.

“I think we’re going to get along just fine, Kenobi,” Mr. Dameron said, clapping him on the shoulder. The men walked ahead of the two students, exchanging glib commentary on the horrors of parking in the city.

Poe’s hand bumped into hers while they followed their fathers outside, and without thinking, Rey took it. She stared steadily forward, a blush creeping into her cheeks, at the back of Mr. Dameron’s head when Poe turned to look at her. He didn’t say anything though, just squeezed her hand comfortingly while they headed to a hidden alleyway, re-sized the car, and piled in, heading home at last.

***  
On the nineteenth of April, Rey returned early to Hogwarts. She and Obi had been invited to attend the Seder with the Organa-Solos, and she was wearing her nicest dress, her hair tamed into a simple braid. They traveled by Floo, stumbling out into the headmistress's parlor, where Han greeted them and led them to where the Seder had been prepared.

She was met with a hug by Leia, who smiled at her while smoothing out the collar of her dress – Luke gave her a hug as well before heading to the table to make sure everything was laid out properly. Leia scolded her twin automatically for presuming otherwise, and Han rolled his eyes affectionately at the Skywalker twins.

Ben was wearing a stiff suit and looking a little uncomfortable, but Rey took a seat next to him, and he immediately relaxed.

“Hey,” he whispered.

“Happy Passover!” Rey whispered back.

“Chag Pesach sameach,” he returned nudging her with his shoulder. Rey looked at the cups set in front of him and smirked.

“Finally gave you the wine this year, Solo?” she teased.

“I’m eighteen in two weeks,” Ben countered defensively. “They couldn’t give me juice forever. You though.” He tugged on her braid and pointed at her four cups of grape juice. “Del Monte for you. Excellent vintage.” Rey shushed him viciously as Leia took her place at the head of the table, and she grinned for a moment more, the pleasant memories of her childhood washing over her while Leia passed out the haggadot.

She collected her transliterated copy of the Haggadah, as she was the only person present who couldn’t read Hebrew (Obi had learned while raising Luke and Leia alongside the now-deceased Organas), and watched as Leia lit the Yom Tov candles.

This year, Ben asked the four questions, and he did so in confident, proud tones – his father beamed at him across the table – before Leia moved forward into the rest of the Seder. Rey followed along in English where she could, catching on to some more familiar phrases in Hebrew, and the evening passed by with the warm comfort of family and friend celebrating the Passover alongside each other. They sang _Had-Gadya_ and on the second round, they sang in English so Rey could join in.  

Afterwards, Rey went to help Leia clear the table, and prepare for the following days. She got caught up talking to Luke about their upcoming exams while holding a stack of plates, and then she nearly tripped over herself to go to the china cabinet and put them away. Right before she turned the corner, she heard familiar voices conversing in the side room.

 “…it’s always harder at this time of year.” Rey froze with her foot extended at the sound of Leia’s tearstained voice. “It’s bad enough with Bail and Breha gone, but…I miss her, Obi. How can you miss someone you barely knew?”

“She’s very close to us, tonight,” Obi said softly. “And remember, sweet girl, you’re more like her than you know. Your mother would be so proud of you.” Rey peeked around the corner and saw the headmistress with her face buried in Obi’s robes, nodding repeatedly, her perfectly styled braids not even trembling from the movement.

Rey stood there for a moment longer until she heard throats being cleared, and then she walked into the side room to find a clear-eyed Leia and a smiling Obi waiting for her to help pack the plates away.

“Good Yom Tov, Leia,” Rey said, stopping to hug the headmistress tightly. “Thank you for inviting me.”

“Of course,” Leia answered, hugging her back.

She was so much smaller than Rey now, she realized with a twinge in her gut. She once seemed like a towering figure, but now, holding Rey – power still simmered under her skin, almost crackling from her eyes at times, but -- Rey rested her cheek on the side of Leia Organa’s head and realized that her childhood hero was very much a person, and very much had feelings beyond those of strength and confidence. _I love you,_ Rey thought fiercely. _You are so important, and I love you._ The words didn’t come out, couldn’t come out, as it felt like something were blocking them, but she hoped Leia knew.

“Chag Pesach kasher vesame’ach,” Leia said softly, and they stood there for a few more moments while dishes clattered distantly in the kitchen, an echo of voices drifting down a silent and dark hallway, there at the start of Passover.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huge, huge, huge thank you to BECCABOOM, who proofread the Seder section of this. I wanted to be absolutely respectful to the celebration of Passover/the Seder, and she helped me so much! (Full disclosure: I was raised Roman Catholic, and am 100% open to fixing any part of the final scene!)
> 
> Here is an online copy of the Passover Haggadah, if you would like to read more about the Seder: [The Haggadah](http://jewishfederation.org/images/uploads/holiday_images/39497.pdf)
> 
> (If there is anything you would like me to edit or add to this scene, please let me know! I really wanted to include this because, you know, that compulsory Christianity is even more absurd when you consider the fact that it's /magic school/ so why the heck is it called Easter Holiday in Harry Potter, and why does every student, with some notable exceptions, at Hogwarts seem to be SuperAnglican and where the heck is the actual representation, and, sidebar, no, having WOC be snakes is NOT representation, anyway, uh, I hope this was okay!)
> 
> p.s. I might publish Chapter 9 tomorrow! It involves....the Quidditch final ;)
> 
> P.p.s - is it time for another update of the Poe POV fic?


	9. A Nice, Clean Game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gryffindor faces Hufflepuff in the final match of the season

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was only going to be 2000 words but then I added a scene, and a detail here and there, and then....  
> 5600 words later.
> 
>  
> 
> Also, what's this??? more...fluff/?!?!?!?
> 
> who /am/ I?

May brought its own sort of beauty to the blossoming greenhouses on the Hogwarts grounds. Rey found more and more excuses to retreat to the solitude offered by Maz’s carefully kept garden. She went there to study, mostly, by herself and away from the increasingly packed library, but she also went there to decompress after long, difficult days in classes.

While her professors often praised her mind, they almost always had issue with her spirit (Skywalker and Kanata being the major exceptions to that rule). And in the past, Rey would have turned to pranks and practical jokes to clear her extra energy at the end of the day – but seeing Poe and Jess one day, cleaning up after a fourth year’s Dungbomb extravaganza, had caused Rey to reconsider her favorite form of stress relief. Sure, it was fun to charm the toilet into regurgitating its contents, now coloured bright pink and purple, onto Armitage Hux (who truly deserved it), and it was fun to transfigure a spider into a quill that would revert back to being a spider when touched by Susan Phasma, but Rey squirmed with the uncomfortable knowledge that the real cost of her pranks the last few years had been covered by people who had never been her target to begin with.

The best sort of prank was one that only punished the person it was directed at – and Rey was still trying to figure out how to achieve just that. With torturing the Knights of Ren off the table, she didn’t have many other options to clear her head. Finn had taken the fun out of Quidditch thoroughly; but, she couldn’t blame him – they were definitely in the final after their defeat of Ravenclaw, and he intended to win the Cup. Rey still felt vaguely guilty about their loss last year, not that Finn had accepted her frequent apologies for failing to catch the Snitch (‘You were _unconscious,_ Peanut,’ he’d protested the last time she tried. ‘ You almost died. No one blames you.’)

The itching under her skin didn’t just come from having to sit still in a seat for six to seven hours a day. There was a new wildness there, as well, one that came from being in close proximity with a certain Head Boy. Rey had been mortified at the last study session she attended in the library, when she’d been drifting off in her thoughts, her Transfiguration textbook propped open while she scribbled notes for an essay – Rose was quizzing Finn on their upcoming exam, Poe popping in here and there with tips, and the soft lushness of his voice had gotten to her in the stuffy library.

It was as though she were in a trance – one second, she was reading about the consequences of food and drink Transfigurative spells that had ended in disaster, and the next, she was staring at Poe’s hands while he talked about the complexity of transfiguring Muggle technology for magical purposes. One second was all it took, and then:

_She was imagining Rose and Finn getting up from the table to go to lunch, and then of course, she would stay back to finish her essay. Poe would elect to stay with her out of solidarity, but a few minutes into her work, a hand – those hands, to be exact, the ones she was staring at – would grip the top of her book and gently set it aside. Poe would smile at her, ask her if she needed a break, and Rey would nod, breathless – and soon they’d be kissing. The exact mechanism that would get them there (there being the stacks of books behind her, in the darker half of the shelving rarely frequented by students or the librarian), was unclear, but they’d find a way, and Poe’s hands would frame her face so delicately, and he’d whisper, “Finally noticed me, Kenobi?” or something cheeky, in between scorching kisses, and she’d—_

“Poe?” Rey startled at the sound of Rose calling Poe’s name. She looked up guiltily, and saw Poe staring at her, a small crease between his eyebrows.

“…Poe?” Rose tried again, and he shook himself, flushing a dark red. “…did you hear my question?”

“Uh…no…sorry,” Poe muttered, his eyes flickering across the table to Rey once more. “Could you repeat it?”

Rey blushed and buried her face in her transfiguration textbook once more. _Could he read minds? Could he read **her** mind? Did he see all of that_?

No, it wouldn’t do to be distracted by Poe Dameron like that when she was trying to study. Rey had decided right then and there that she’d study on her own from then on, because even if she were in love with someone, it wouldn’t do to gawk at them, particularly when they themselves seemed so hesitant to pursue something... of that nature.

So, two weeks after that disastrous embarrassment, and she’d avoided study sessions in the library entirely – and most meals in the castle, as well.

After finishing her chores on a Friday afternoon, Rey locked up Greenhouse Three behind her and brushed dirt off of her skirt and knees. She tucked the magazine she’d been reading into her pocket, and got ready to head back to the castle to change and wash before dinner, but a rustling at the edge of the forest caught her attention.

She cocked her head and walked towards the sound slowly; Rey wondered if an animal had crept too close to the castle by accident. The treeline was much thinner near the Herbology greenhouses, and she could see the soft, green light between the vast trunks, a tempting and sylvan glow that drew her in even past the point of her normal curiosity.

When she reached the spot where she’d heard the noise, she stilled. Poe Dameron stood in the clearing at the bottom of an incline, a few dozen feet away from her. His sleeves were rolled up to the elbow, his tie loose and vest absent, and he had a large silver bucket at his feet. She thought to herself that he looked like some Greek god in a painting, some nature spirit come to life, the green of his surroundings lending him an otherworldly glow. Then, he spoke.

There was nothing else in the clearing, but he spoke very soothingly, very softly. “…there you go,” he whispered, and Rey squinted as his hand reached up and patted the air at his head’s height. “Sh, sh, sh.” She watched, astonished, as whatever he held in his hand vanished. He bent down and grabbed more out of the bucket.

Rey crept closer, not wanting to startle him – or whatever he was working with – but wanting to see what was happening. Her stomach turned when she saw what was in his hand: raw and bloody meat. Pieces of it kept disappearing, and Poe whispered a few more praises, a smile on his handsome face.

_Snap._

Rey stepped on a small branch, breaking it in half. She winced as the sound reverberated around the clearing like a gunshot, and Poe turned to see where the noise had come from, his hand raised in a way to calm…something.

“Sorry,” Rey whispered, hands raised beseechingly. “I didn’t mean to – I just finished up at the greenhouse, and I heard – sorry.” Poe’s expression was wary, and he turned from her to pet the air some more.

“It’s okay,” he said slowly. “Um.” Something distinctly uncomfortable was in his eyes when she drew up next to him. “…Can you see them, too?”

Rey frowned at him, and then at the air near him. She shivered, for there was nothing there, but she could…sense something. Even if Poe weren’t obviously feeding something invisible, she’d be able to tell something was there. “No,” she said, shaking her head and offering him a small smile. “No…but something is there, I can feel it.”

Poe nodded, and then as though suddenly remembering his hand was covered in blood, he shook it out and coughed nervously. “Um. Professor Antilles sent me out here because one got sick.”

“One what?” Rey asked curiously. She knelt to examine the bucket’s contents. As she suspected, it was just raw meat.

“Thestral,” Poe said absentmindedly, his clean hand patting the air once more. “And here’s the sick one. Well, she’s not sick. She’s pregnant.”

“She is?” Rey stood excitedly and smiled at the air near Poe’s hand. “Is she right there?” She pointed, and Poe shook his head, smiling more brightly this time.

“No. She’s right here.” He grabbed her hand carefully, and guided it a bit to the right. Rey gasped when her hand came in contact with something that felt an awful lot like…hide, sort of like a hairless dog or cat.

“She’s so thin,” Rey said worriedly. “Is that why Antilles thought she was sick?”

“No,” Poe laughed and grabbed more meat. Rey resumed stroking the air, the oddity of being able to touch something she couldn’t see both remarkable and alarming. “No, they’re always thin. They’re uh…kind of like really, really thin horses.”

“How come you can see her, but I can’t?” Rey asked. Poe didn’t answer at first, and Rey watched as he offered up another piece of meat which slowly disappeared. She felt the muscles and sinews of the thestral’s neck shifting underneath her hand.

“They’re…interesting creatures,” Poe said after a long moment. He started to pet the other side of the neck, and avoided looking at Rey. “Misunderstood, really. Very gentle, very helpful. But. You can only see them…well, you can only see them after you’ve watched someone die.” Rey’s head jerked to look at him, her eyes wide, and he steadfastly gazed up at the creature he was caring for. “So, they get a bad rep. People confuse them with omens of death, when it really couldn’t be further from the truth. They show themselves to humans who have seen loss because they want to…well, I think they want to help.”

“That’s beautiful,” Rey said quietly, her hand stilling as she considered it.

“They’re really not beautiful,” Poe laughed once, bitterly. She raised her eyebrows at him, surprised. “But things don’t always have to be beautiful to be good.”

“They sound kind,” Rey pointed out. She lowered her hand from the thestral’s neck, and she poked at Poe’s side gently. “Kindness is its own kind of beauty, isn’t it?”

The truth of her own statement hit her powerfully, then – she’d known Poe Dameron was handsome since the minute she met him. She saw him for the first time when he was in his second year, and she in her first – but, she hadn’t bothered to look past the handsome, past the rule-following, past the teacher-pleasing, perfect poster child for wizardry that he’d represented at the time. For years, she thought _Poe Dameron, handsome, priggish arse,_ but she hadn’t bothered to see the absolute truth of him.

Poe Dameron was kind, and that’s what made him beautiful. Not his gorgeous, curling hair, or white teeth, or strong jaw – not his broad chest, or muscles from Quidditch which most students fawned over – not the dimple in his chin or cheek, and not his large and soulful eyes or perfect skin – no. Poe Dameron was kind, and there was nothing in the world he could be that Rey could value more than that.

This realization hit her in the blink of an eye, not even five earthly seconds passing between her saying her opinion, and Poe turning to look at her, but she was still shaken when his eyes rested on her face, an intangible weight she shivered from.

“You’re right,” Poe said, his hand lowering to his side while he regarded her carefully. “You know, you’re the smartest person I’ve ever met, Rey Kenobi.”

“And I think you’re the best person I’ve ever met,” she countered, feeling shy once more. Poe’s mouth opened, and he took a step toward her, his hand outstretched. Her heart pounded in her ears, something she really needed to get used to around him, but then he looked down and winced.

Her eyes drifted to where he had looked, and she saw the drying blood from the thestral’s meal, bright and red on his palm.

“Here,” she said softly, holding her hand out to him. Poe placed his hand in hers without hesitation, and Rey pulled her wand out and pointed it at his palm. “ _Tergeo._ ” The blood fell away and vanished, and Rey pocketed her wand when all evidence of it was gone. “Good as new,” she murmured, her other hand wiping at his palm.

“Rey,” Poe made her name sound like something entirely new. She looked up at the same time his hand curled around hers, and she startled, realizing they were only a few inches apart. “I need to tell you—”

An invisible force nudged at their clasped hands, and Rey laughed wildly at the cold and wet nose of the thestral.

“I think she’s still hungry,” she giggled, and Poe heaved an impossibly heavy sigh, glowering at the unseen creature.

“I think she is,” he grumbled, going to the bucket. “Here! Just – here-“ he held it up for the thestral, and then dumped it out carefully on the ground. It began to vanish bit by bit, and Rey grinned at him, partly relieved but mostly disappointed at the broken moment from before.

“Do you want to get dinner up in the castle?” She asked, jabbing her thumb in the right direction.

“Yeah!” Poe smiled at her, something sad in his eyes as he pet the thestral one last time. “I’d love to. I need to run this stuff back to Antilles though, so I’ll meet you up there?”

Her stomach grumbled, but for the first time in her life, Rey ignored it. “I’ll go with you,” she offered. “It’s so nice out, I don’t mind.”

“Really?” Poe beamed at her eagerly and grabbed the bucket and a pair of gloves he’d clearly abandoned. “Let’s go!” They headed towards the Care for Magical Creatures classroom in companionable silence.

Right before they got to the door, however, Rey’s magazine fell out of her pocket, and Poe knelt down to pick it up for her.

“No!” Rey gasped, kneeling down to grab it as well. “I can –” Too late.

Poe frowned at the cover of _Teen Witch,_ and then up at Rey. A small grin cracked across his face. “Didn’t place you for a Teen Witch fan,” he teased.

“It’s…it’s…” Rey gestured helplessly and snagged it out of his hands. “It’s not what you think!”

“No, I get it,” Poe shook his head and stood, smiling. She followed, feeling a little sick with nerves. “I love Florence.”

“Huh?” Rey asked, clutching the magazine to her chest.

“Florence Welch?” Poe gave her a weird look and pointed at the magazine’s cover, where a beautiful red-haired woman flashed a smile, her head wreathed in flowers. “Huge fan. My dad was so excited  when I told him she was a witch, we’ve gone to like three concerts.”

“Oh,” Rey said, nodding wildly. Poe gave her another weird look before knocking on the door. “Yeah – y-yeah, she’s great, I love her.”

“You coming?” He asked, walking into the hut when the door swung open.

“I’ll wait out here,” Rey squeaked. He shrugged and disappeared inside, and Rey fanned herself desperately with the folded up magazine.

Thank Merlin Poe had assumed she was reading this thing for the Florence interview – and not for the side article titled _Fifty Tricks Every Witch Should Know When Wooing Her Man._

Rey dumped the magazine unceremoniously in Antilles’s compost pile. She had an image to maintain, after all. And reading articles on how to kiss someone could hardly be in support of that image.

***

The Saturday after Rey met a thestral, Hufflepuff faced Slytherin in the final match of the regular season. Rey watched, biting her nails, for the whole, rainy event, and clutched Finn’s arm when Poe peeled off from the majority of the players, shooting forward past the collection of Chasers, only to execute a perfect barrel roll, hurtling towards the ground at breakneck speed.

“He’s insane!” she shrieked, jumping to her feet, her hand over her mouth. “He’s going to crash!”

But he didn’t crash – he pulled out of his intense dive at the last second, startling several Slytherin players as he flew _backwards,_ catching the Snitch from behind one of their ears, and the pitch erupted in screams.

“Oh!” Rey shouted, jumping up and down. “Oh, that idiot! That absolute idiot!”

“I’m talking about this at your wedding,” Rose commented idly, not looking up from the textbook she had spread out across her lap. Rey stuck her tongue out at her and continued cheering. Poe did a lazy lap of the pitch, the golden ball clutched in his hand, waving at the screaming fans, and he passed right by their stands. He winked at Rey before pulling away, and she blushed and sat back down, her hand over her mouth once more.

“Oh,” she whispered. “Oh no.”

“Yep,” Finn said, nodding, as he took a seat next to her. “Gryffindor v. Hufflepuff, round two. We’re playing him in two weeks.” Rey stared out into space, a smile spreading across her face at the idea. “Time for your revenge, Kenobi. That is, if you’re willing to take down Dameron.”

“Let’s win that damn Cup, Trooper,” Rey said, turning at last to smirk at him.

“Atta girl.”

***

The day of the Quidditch final dawned, and Rey got dressed and went down to breakfast, feeling uncharacteristically nervous.

“You need to eat something,” Rose warned, nudging bowls of oatmeal towards Finn. “Both of you.” She jabbed her finger at Rey’s plate of bacon and eggs, and Rey shook her head, wincing.

“Can’t,” she muttered, rubbing at her forearm. It was sore from where one of her teammates had accidentally grazed her with a Bludger at practice yesterday (Finn had cried, and that had made Rey cry, and now she was in a particularly weird head space), and she winced at the mottled bruise on her freckled skin.

“What the hell is that?” Rey looked up, as did Rose (Finn still looked like he was contemplating drowning himself in his orange juice) at Poe Dameron, who was staring horrified at Rey’s arm.

“Nothing,” Rey said hastily, shoving her arm under the table. “Nothing you need to worry about.”

“Yeah, okay,” Poe clearly didn’t believe her, but he set his face into a very determined smile to direct at Rey and then Finn, and eventually all the gathered teammates. “Best of luck today.”

“You too,” Rey answered for Finn, who groaned something into his oatmeal. “Ignore him.”

“I don’t feel great,” Finn mumbled, and Rey shushed him ferociously.

“Good luck to Hufflepuff,” she said, smiling brightly as though nothing else was happening, as though their captain wasn’t particularly green in the gills today. “Same bet as last year?”

“Same…” Poe gave her a strange look before laughing and looking down at his feet. “Uh, yeah. Loser buys the winner a butterbeer.”

“It’s a date,” Rey said carelessly, leaning over to feel Finn’s forehead. Poe made a strange, strangled noise, but when she looked back up, he was walking stiffly back to Hufflepuff table.

“I think you get disqualified if you kill the opposing team’s captain, Kenobi,” Kare warned her with an evil grin. “Even if it’s death by flirting.”

“I didn’t mean to,” Rey protested. “That – that wasn’t flirting.”

“Mhm,” Kare prodded Finn in the side. “Seriously, mate, are you going to be able to fly?”

“Yeah,” Finn grumbled. “I just – can we head down to the pitch early? I need to focus.”

“Of course,” Rey said. Rose glared at her when she stood, and she sighed and shoved a piece of toast and three slices of bacon in her mouth at once. “Happy?” She asked with her mouth full.

“Yep,” Rose said, smirking at her. “Here, let me call Dameron back, I bet he’ll want to see this—”

“Leaving!” Rey said, seizing Finn by the arm and dragging him away from the table. “We are leaving!”

They ended up at the pitch an hour early, and she and Finn tossed a Quaffle back and forth in complete silence until the rest of the team showed up. They changed quickly, and soon it was time to head out to the pitch.

“We can do this,” Finn said firmly, their hands piled in the middle of their huddle. “We – we had this last year, but the galaxy conspired against us. That’s not going to happen this year. We’re the best there is, and we’ve always been the best. Just be our normal selves, kick some badger ass, and remind this school what it means to be a Gryffindor.”

“Gryffindor!” They shouted, breaking their huddle and jostling each other playfully on their way out to the field.

“Kick some badger ass?” Rey teased him, nudging Finn with her shoulder as they walked along the corridor between the stands, fans screaming for them and throwing flowers and confetti down on them. “That’s new.”

“Yeah, well,” Finn grabbed her by the arm while the rest of the team jogged out to where Holdo and the Hufflepuff team were waiting. “Look, Kare’s playing Snap today, and I already talked to her about this – you can put it aside, right?”

“I’m not dating anyone on that team,” Rey pointed out crossly, feeling slightly defensive, but Finn shook his head and squeezed her arm once before releasing her.

“I mean, can you ignore the fact that you’re in love with him long enough to beat him?” Finn asked quietly, barely audible over the crowd. “Because we need our Seeker, Peanut.”

“You’ve got her,” Rey assured him, grabbing his forearm. If anyone else had said this to her, they’d be jinxed halfway to Norway, but this was Finn, and she completely understood him.

He grasped her forearm as well, and they looked each other in the eyes. “Nothing’s going to distract me. I’m here for you guys, and I’m here to win. Don’t worry.”

“Love you,” Finn said, wrapping her up in a hug.

“Love you too, numpty,” Rey said into the air over his shoulder. “Now, to quote a wise man – now, let’s get out there and kick some badger ass.”

After the handshake, they kicked off from the hard ground and the game began – Rey smiled at Poe briefly before zipping away from him, determination pounding in her blood, in her ears.  It was a fast-paced game, both badger and lion competing ferociously, but fairly. It was the least number of penalties Rey had ever seen in a game of Quidditch, let alone the final, but apologies were given after elbows met with faces, fumbled Quaffles weren’t met with jeers from the other side, and Bludgers never made contact, only forced players off their intended course.

The latter fact had Rey thinking as she waited, high above the pitch, thinking of last year’s game that she still barely remembered. And when Finn called a time out, right as clouds rolled in and a fine rain began to fall over them, she sidled up next to Kare and whispered, “Why _does_ Hufflepuff have new Beaters this year?”

The two from last year were gone, and Rey wasn’t particularly close to either of them. The replacements were decent, of course, but Edwards had been the highest ranked Beater in the school before…

“You didn’t hear?” Kare asked while Finn ran down some ideas with the other Chasers, who had been lagging in the first part of the game. Rey shook her head, and Kare eyed Finn before leaning in. “Dameron went off at them last year after the final. Snap had to pull him off Edwards when he found out he was the one who…you know…” Kare looked at Rey guiltily, and Rey nodded, wincing at the memory of waking up in the hospital win to be told she’d nearly died after an illegal hit. “And when the other Beater tried to defend Edwards, Poe threw them both off the team. Tried to get Edwards suspended as well, but Leia decided a ban from Quidditch for the rest of his time here was enough.”

“I didn’t know that,” Rey whispered, back her mind reeling. She stared through the rain, much heavier now, at Poe and his team, their yellow uniforms the most visible part of them in the crappy weather. “Why would he—”

“C’mon, Kenobi,” Kare punched her arm playfully and adjusted her grip on her broomstick. The game was about to start again. “You’re the brightest witch in our year. You know why.”

The team unanimously decided to use the Impervius Charm to prevent the rain from hitting their faces and clouding their vision, and then they all mounted their broomsticks and waited for Holdo’s signal. The whistle sounded, and they took off once more, Gryffindor in possession of the Quaffle. Rey flew past Poe, her hands cold and slipping on her broomstick.

“Hey, Dameron—” she called, and they flew side by side for a moment.

“What?” He shouted back, blinking against the rain.

_Every time I learn something new about you, it makes me fall more in love with you._

Not the time.

“Try _impervius,_ ” she shouted at him, pointing at his face. “It’s not perfect, but it’s better than this.”

She and Poe both paused for a moment, and he pulled his wands from his robes to tap his face and recite the spell. He grinned a second later, and looked around. “Loads better,” he said. “Don’t think I’ll be easier on you, though.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Rey laughed. “Look alive, Dameron.”

She pulled away from him, heading off to a different section of the pitch. She watched the game from afar for the next three quarters of an hour, and although her vision was greatly reduced, she groaned as she watched Hufflepuff stack up the points against them.

They were down eighty points, and there was still no sign of the Snitch. She circled the announcer’s stand, waving half-heartedly at Connix, and she smacked her broomstick in frustration as she heard her friend say, “And another ten points to Hufflepuff!”

 _Great,_ Rey thought grumpily. _I’m freezing my butt off in the rain, and we’re going to get our arses kicked. Great, great, great._ She sighed and tried to clear her mind, the way Obi always urged her to during meditation.

She examined the pitch and then closed her eyes, ignoring the rain, and the uncomfortable heaviness of her uniform, and the wind, focusing instead on the hum of her broomstick underneath her. She felt the pitch, slowly but surely, hum to life as well, and in her mind, she envisioned it as one large, interconnected web, of people to plant to players to –

Snitch.

She opened her eyes and squinted in the rain. There it was – a flash of gold over near the base of Hufflepuff’s hoops. Rey hunted around quickly even as she urged her broom forward: Poe was flying above her in the opposite direction, and she grinned wildly to herself.

A Beater flew in front of her, and she didn’t have time to see which team they played for – she pivoted out of the way, spinning in 360 degrees as she moved to the left, and then she dodged through the collected players on the field, taking the shortest path to her destination, not caring how many people she had to cut through to get there.

“Go, Dameron!” She had Snap bellow, and the wind whistling in her ears wouldn’t let her gauge how close Poe was to her. Rey flew as fast as she could, not caring about the rain hitting her skin like needles, not caring about a single thing but the golden Snitch darting around in front of her. It zoomed to the left, and she veered to follow it, diving briefly underneath a Chaser who was going for the Quaffle, not aware that the Seekers had already locked in on their prize. The crowd gasped as one, and that she could hear, even through the rain and wind.

She stretched her hand out, the ground growing closer and closer and closer, dizzyingly so, but Rey planted a foot on her broom and stretched out as far as she could, half-crouching, balancing desperately until –

The Snitch was in her palm, and she screamed in excitement, almost toppling over.

The wings of the Snitch beat uselessly against her closed fist, and Rey pulled back sharply until she was seated fully once more, her hand raised in victory, controlling her flight until she could dismount and jog to a halt in the tall grass. With her fist still aloft as she showed off the captured Snitch, the school erupted into screams, scarlet and gold sparks flying from the ends of hundreds of wands as Connix screamed “ _Kenobi caught the Snitch! Gryffindor wins, 460 to 380! Gryffindor wins the Cup!”_ into the microphone. Rey laughed, exhilarated, wild, and her team circled above her, screaming over the din of the crowd as they began their descent to the pitch.

Rey turned to grin at Poe, who had landed about a dozen feet away from her. “Guess you owe me that Butterbeer, Dameron,” she called through the rain, but the words caught in her throat at the expression on his face. He swept across the damp grass towards her, and she felt as though he moved in slow motion. As he neared her, he chucked his broomstick away from him, ripping his gloves off and throwing them as well.

“You’re brilliant,” he said hoarsely, even as the crowd continued its chant of _Go, Go, Gryffindor! Go, Go, Gryffindor!_ He was a step away, and Rey gasped when he grabbed her around the waist and hauled her in close to him. “You were absolutely brilliant. Can – can I—”

“Yes,” Rey said, something in her screaming in victory, something entirely separate from the match she’d just won, as she placed her hands on his chest and closed the final distance between them. “Yes, yes of course—”

His lips were on hers, and she forgot every worry, every concern she ever had about the mechanics of this – who gave a bloody hell about _how to_ and _perfect technique,_ when Poe was here, when his mouth pressed against hers, his cold nose pressed to her cheek while his hands gripped her waist, his fingers digging in just-so to her back, tangible even through the thick, sodden uniform.

Reality came surging back at the edges of her attention – the crowd screaming even louder now, the thud of their various teammates hitting the grass around them, the rain still falling around them, and a particularly enthusiastic whoop from her best friend –

“ _Fucking finally_!” Finn screamed from behind her. Rey laughed softly, and Poe took the opportunity to shift his attention to her bottom lip, and she stopped laughing.

“Language, Mr. Trooper!” Holdo shouted from further back.

“Sorry, Madam Holdo!”

Poe laughed as well this time, and he rested his forehead on hers while his hands stroked her upper arms. Rey stared at his face in amazement, probably cross-eyed from the effort and not caring in the least. “Want to get out of here?” She asked him breathlessly, and Poe nodded quickly.

“Can I…can we go on a date?” He asked nervously, and Rey grinned at him.

“Of course we can—” Her words were cut off when she was viciously pulled away from Poe.

She shrieked and tried to clobber whoever had grabbed her around the waist, but it was Finn, and as he dragged her away, he shook his head. “Nope!” He shouted. Iolo grabbed Finn and helped pull Rey backwards, the dual effort required as Rey struggled to get back to Poe. “You can have her back when we’re done celebrating! I need my Seeker!”

“Fair enough,” Poe said, grinning. Snap walked up to him and wrapped his arm around his shoulders, looking pleased as punch. “See you later, Kenobi.”

“I wanna go with Poe,” Rey grumbled. They could keep kissing. They should keep kissing.

“Figured it out, did you?” Finn snorted and released her, but Iolo and Kare each looped their arms through hers, and they continued their march off the pitch and towards the castle. The rain had slowed to a trickle, and in the distance, the sun was poking through the clouds once more. “Only took a year.”

“Oh, hush,” Kare said primly, patting Rey’s arm comfortingly. “Be nice to her, Trooper, she did just win us the Cup.”

“What, this old thing?” Finn held the silver trophy aloft, and Rey stared at it in amazement.

“When did you get that?” She asked, distracted from her mutinous thoughts. Kare and Iolo released her so she could take the Cup from Finn and examine it with wide eyes.

“Huh - just about when you were examining Poe’s tonsils,” Finn answered innocently. “ _Hey_!” Rey had released one of the cup’s handles to slug him on the arm. He massaged his arm, grumbling, and Rey returned to her inspection of their winnings. “…I bet they were nice tonsils, though.”

Rey sighed and handed the Cup carefully to Kare, and then leveled a ferocious glare at Finn. “You’re dead meat, Trooper,” she warned, darting forwards. Finn screamed and ran away, and she chased him all the way up and into the castle, Finn dodging out of reach and howling with laughter the whole time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thoughts? Feelings? Incoherent screaming?
> 
> ~One Chapter Remains~


	10. End of Term

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey Kenobi's sixth year at Hogwarts comes to an eventful conclusion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> !!! fun fact this story was originally going to be four chapters, one for every season at Hogwarts, and only ~20,000 words long, but uh...yeah...

It wasn’t until after the Quidditch final that Rey realized just how much the majority of the school had been rooting for her and Poe to get together. While it was a little flattering that so many people, many of whom Rey didn’t know, had wanted to see her with the incredibly popular Head Boy, it also guaranteed a lack of the privacy that Rey wanted while exploring things with Poe.

They couldn’t hold hands in the hallway when they finally met up after the Gryffindor party ended - some fifth year screamed “YES!” and high-fived their friend – and sitting together in the Great Hall caused a a gaggle of Hufflepuffs to pass by and sigh with powerful collective emotion. Rey just wanted everyone to find something new to gossip about, so she could get on with her life (and snogging Poe Dameron in private, thankyouverymuch).

“Are you and Dameron dating?” A Ravenclaw whispered to her during Charms on the Monday following the match.

“I beg your pardon?” Rey stared at her in mild amusement. The question had absolutely nothing to do with Erso’s lesson, and Rey for one was not inclined to push Erso’s temper by engaging in a side conversation.

“You know,” the girl leaned in closer and grinned at Rey. “Is it official? Are you two boyfriend and girlfriend, or just hooking up?”

Rey opened her mouth to provide a colourful retort, but Erso called, “Kenobi?” and she turned towards the professor.

“It’s _Fianto Duri_ ,” Rey responded, not batting an eye. “It has the same properties as _Duro_ , but does not need to be specifically applied to tangible objects.”

“Clever girl,” Erso winked at her and waved her wand at the board – a diagram of how to cast the strengthening charm appeared. “Now, Collins, if you’re done harassing Kenobi over boys, would you like to start practicing this spell which will most certainly appear on your exam in three weeks?”

“Yes ma’am.”

At the bell to signal the end of classes, Rey gathered up her things and headed for the door. She was stopped by Professor Erso, who called her over to her desk. Rey crossed back over to the small woman, slipping through the throng of students going the other direction.

“Sorry about that,” Rey said as she walked up to her professor. “I really didn’t want to be talking while you were lecturing—”

“I know that,” Erso laughed and straightened up a stack of essays on her desk. “I’ve been your professor for six years, Kenobi, I know boys are the last thing you want to talk about.”

Rey winced and nodded, her hand playing with the strap of the bag. “So, er – what did you want to talk about?”

“You.” Erso leveled her with a keen gaze, and although she was almost a half foot taller than the older woman, Rey felt very small. Oddly enough, it was a similar effect to being in Organa’s presence. _They must get along like a house on fire._ “Have you thought about what you’re going to do after Hogwarts?”

“Not really,” Rey said truthfully. “I’m just…trying to get through the next year without being expelled.” The joke fell flat in the air between them, and Erso hopped up on her stool and regarded Rey with unreadable brown eyes.

“Why do you think you’ll be expelled?” Erso asked quietly.

“I don’t…” Rey trailed off at the single, raised eyebrow. She sighed and redirected. “I’m really, really good at getting into trouble,” she said. “Organa could have expelled me at least half a dozen times since third year.” She stared at the floor, face red as she thought back on some of her finest moments – the time she’d jinxed a carpet to be a trap door, swallowing Armitage Hux whole when he walked over it; the instance in her fourth year where she tried to drown a Beauxbatons student in a bowl of punch for getting too fresh at the Yule Ball… _It’s why I don’t have any plans,_ she wanted to say. _I’m not meant to have a future. Just look at my past._

“You haven’t gotten in trouble in at least a month,” Erso observed. “You haven’t even been insulting people in my class for idiocy. To my knowledge, at least.”

“A brief reprieve, I guess,” Rey said weakly.

“No, I don’t think so.” The professor stared at her for a long moment, and Rey writhed internally. It felt like a physical examination at the doctor. “Did I ever tell you that I almost went to Azkaban when I was twenty years old?”

_What?_

“Um, no?” Rey blinked in surprise, her mouth slightly parted.

“Yes, it’s true,” Erso looked bizarrely nostalgic as she smiled to herself. “I … came across some sensitive information that proved several high-ranking Ministry members were closeted Vader supporters. This was over ten years after his downfall, mind you, but still, things were very volatile after he was killed. And,” Erso tossed her hair back and grinned like the Cheshire cat, “rather than do something _legal_ with the information – like give it to the authorities, for example – I took it upon myself to publish it, broadcast it for the whole world to see, in the Daily Prophet under a pseudonym.”

“ _Stardust_ ,” Rey breathed, eyes wide. She remembered the case well, having studied it in History of Magic. “They – they never published the real name of the leak, but that was – that was you?”

“Mhm.” Erso folded her hands. Rey could hear thundering feet on their way to lunch in the corridor outside, but in the classroom, a significant silence passed between the two. “They discovered it was me, of course, and I appeared before the Wizengamot. They were going to find me guilty on all charges, but…oh, somehow the evidence against me quite literally disappeared, and they never found out how. And then the daughter of the most popular Minister for Magic of all time spoke in my defense, and well—” Erso spread her hands wide. “No dementors for me.”

“Why are you—”

“Why am I telling you all this?” Erso cocked her head and smiled at her. “At twenty years old, I was angrier than a basilisk in a henhouse. I had the most miserable childhood, and there wasn’t a weekend at Hogwarts where I didn’t have detention. I was absolutely convinced that there was nothing better I could do with my life than lose it in the name of something more important than myself.” Rey’s eyes lowered once more to the floor, cringing in half-understanding of what Erso was trying to say.

A small hand grasped Rey’s arm, and she looked up to see Erso in front of her, smiling kindly. Her throat burned at the expression – Erso had never smiled like that in six years. “I’m telling you this, Rey, because I had no idea what I was going to do with my life when I was twenty years old, and certainly not when I was sixteen. And that was okay. It took some time to figure out, but if you had told me when I sat in court, waiting to be sentenced, that one day I’d be a professor at the school I’d done nothing but terrorize, married to the love of my life who was _also an Auror,_ and happier than anything to sit in my armchair at home with my cat, a warm cup of tea, and a fire, I’d have laughed in your face.” 

Rey nodded, still too overwhelmed to say anything. Somehow, she didn’t think Professor Erso minded. Her hand gripped her shoulder tightly, and Erso gave her one last searching look, her eyes bright and framed by her steel-grey bangs. “You remind me very much of myself, Kenobi,” she said at last, releasing her. “And I’d hate to see you give up on yourself because you assume you don’t deserve any better.”

With that, she turned around and started drawing notes on the chalkboard. “Head to lunch, now,” she called over her shoulder.

“Thank you, Professor,” Rey said quietly. Erso stilled for a moment, nodded, and then went back to her diagrams. Rey slipped through the door, and walked down the corridor entirely lost in thought. Her conversation with Erso hadn’t even been five minutes, but the hallways were mostly clear now; she was completely caught off guard, then, when someone walked up next to her and whispered, _psst._

She startled violently and looked up from the carpet. Poe held his hands up apologetically and smiled at her. “Sorry,” he said softly. “Sorry – I was calling your name but you didn’t hear me –”

“That’s okay.” Rey smiled at him.

“Did you want to get some lunch?” Poe asked hopefully. “I was…I was hoping we could finally talk about…everything…and I went to Erso’s classroom so we could walk down together, but you guys were talking—”

“You waited for me?” Rey asked shyly, biting her lip. Poe’s eyes tracked the movement, and she blushed at it. “You didn’t have to.”

“I wanted to,” Poe said quickly. They smiled at each other for a few seconds, and then Rey cleared her throat and looked away, still blushing furiously.

“I’m not really hungry,” she admitted. “But—”

“But?” Poe leaned in, smiling, and Rey took the opportunity to lift up slightly on her toes and kiss his cheek.

“But I wanted to do that all day,” she finished. The expression of shock on Poe’s face made her giggle, but then his eyes darkened slightly, and she stopped laughing.

“Well, if you aren’t hungry,” Poe said slowly, taking a small step forward. Rey swallowed and stared up at him. “…and we have a free hour…”

Rey nodded, rapidly. “We do,” she said. “Almost a whole hour.”

“Hmm,” Poe held his hand out, and she took it. He led her down the hallway, and she wondered where he’d take them – the Room of Requirement? Rose and Finn went there sometimes, after all, not that she’d rat them out over it to the Head Boy – and he paused in front of a tapestry. He pulled it out of the way, revealing a small, hidden passageway. “After you?” He asked, looking very shy suddenly.

She’d never backed down from a challenge in her life, but the admittedly incredibly attractive idea of snogging Poe Dameron senseless also made her incredibly nervous. Rey nodded again, silent once more, and slipped behind the tapestry in front of him. “Hold on,” he whispered, and then a soft blue light emitted from his wand. He took the bluebell flames and tucked them up into an unlit bracket, and the passageway was washed in its gentle glow.

“So what were you and Erso talking about?” Poe asked conversationally as he lit another bracket. The passageway looked distinctly more cheery now, and Rey breathed a little easier. She wasn’t sure if she could handle a dimly lit corridor _and_ the way Poe Dameron looked in torchlight _and_ the way her heart felt when she was within five feet of him. She might combust.

“Uhm.” Rey didn’t want to share what Erso had told her in private, so she went for the first part of the truth. “A girl was bugging me during class, and Erso wanted to make sure everything was okay.”

“Bugging you?” Poe looked concerned, and she swore she saw his chest with that damned badge on it puff up. “Who was bugging you?”

“Easy, Dameron,” Rey laughed, stroking a hand down his arm. He immediately relaxed. “It was just Morgan Collins, from my year. She had some…questions about you and me.”

“What about you and me?” Poe murmured, stepping in close to her. Rey’s back hit the wall – she hadn’t realized they’d been drifting towards it, but she looked Poe in the eyes, searching them for a sign of _something,_ but what she saw made her shiver.

“She asked if we were boyfriend and girlfriend,” Rey laughed awkwardly.

“And what did you say?” His voice, honey warm and rougher than she ever heard it, spooled through her stomach and made it hard to answer.

“I didn’t say anything,” Rey said truthfully. She was very aware at how little space existed between them at the moment, and a burning ember in her lower stomach urged her to end the conversation and just put her mouth on his mouth, damnit. “I wasn’t sure how to answer.” He blinked, and some of the headiness vanished from his gaze.

“Do you me to be your boyfriend?” Poe asked, tilting his head to the side. Rey opened her mouth but nothing intelligible came out. She shrugged with one shoulder and looked to the side. _What if he doesn’t want the same thing? What if I say the wrong thing? What if I ruin everything?_ “Because – God, Rey, I’ve wanted to be your boyfriend since I was fifteen years old.”

“Really?” She couldn’t believe it. That was – that was _impossible._ “Why? I’m just – I give you shit all the time, and I’m not…I’m not nice like other people are, and—”

“Hey,” Poe grabbed her hand and squeezed it gently, and Rey’s mouth snapped shut. “Hey – first of all – you’re not nice, not really, not all the time, but who gives a shit about that? You’re a good person.” Rey wanted to argue, but Poe shook his head. “I _see_ you. I see you all the time, Rey, and you go through life caring about other people, and trying to help people who deserve it, and standing up for people who can’t stand up for themselves. And yeah, you give assholes a hard time, and sometimes your absolute knack for finding the most possible danger makes me want to scream, but you’re so much _more_ than nice. You’re kind,” he leaned in and kissed her cheek gently, and then smiled at her with soft eyes. Rey wanted to melt. “And funny, and strong, and brave. _Nice._ ” Poe shook his head and laughed. “As if a lioness needs to be nice.”

 In a voice thick with unshed, half-formed tears, Rey said, “Can I kiss you now? Because I really want to kiss you.”

“Of course.” Poe smiled and leaned in, and Rey hummed at the way his hands framed her face delicately, the way she always imagined they would when she let herself picture this.

“So,” Rey whispered when he pulled back and rested his forehead on hers. “You want to be my boyfriend, and I want you to be my boyfriend, so that means I’m…your girlfriend?”

Poe groaned softly and opened his eyes, which had just been closed in quiet bliss. “Can you say that again?”

“I’m your girlfriend,” Rey repeated, grinning like mad. “I’m your girlfriend, I’m Poe Dameron’s girlfriend—”

She expected him to laugh at the sing-song tone she’d adopted to repeat the phrase, but Poe surged in and kissed her breathless instead. This kiss quickly became _not_ delicate, and Rey gasped as she was pushed up against the wall, and snogged very thoroughly. She wasn’t sure how long they stood there, locked together in an embrace that made it hard to tell where she stopped and where he started, but they did part for air eventually, and Poe traced the line of her jaw.

They didn’t say anything, but it felt like a thousand words passed unspoken between them while they looked at each other. Poe shook his head slightly and ducked down to replace his fingers with his mouth. She gasped as he kissed along her jaw, to the very edge of it, and then down her neck. “Is this okay?” He asked when her hands fisted in his shirt. He had frozen when he asked, and Rey nodded quickly, her eyes closing.

“So okay,” she answered, praying that he’d – _yes,_ he started again, and Rey squirmed and sighed and – _squeaked._

Poe laughed, an exhalation of breath against her throat that made her toes curl.

A thought occurred to her while her boyfriend (her toes curling further at the word) kissed the delicate hollow of her throat, his fingers trailing along her collarbone. He hummed happily when he passed over the locket she still wore, the one he’d made for her, and Rey carded her fingers through his hair, knocking it out of its careful style.

“Is this the first time you’ve broken the rules all year?” Rey asked, aiming for cheeky. Instead, she sounded breathless, like she’d run a very great distance.

He didn’t pause in kissing her neck, but she felt him shrug slightly. “Not against the rules,” he said softly, and gently sucked under her jaw.

Her fingers dug into his elbows, and before she entirely lost her nerve – “You looked it up!” Rey accused playfully. He didn’t say anything, but the pressure on her neck increased, and Rey gasped loudly at the heat that spiraled from the point of contact. “Y-you _dork,_ ” she said. “You did, didn’t you?”

Poe pulled away and straightened up, smiling bashfully. “The rules are for _public_ displays of affection, and sneaking into dorm rooms,” he pointed out, rubbing the back of his neck. “And we aren’t in public _or_ a dorm room…” Rey was overwhelmed by a wave of affection for him, and surged back into him, kissing him soundly. They stumbled back until Poe was up against the opposite wall, and Rey took full advantage of their positioning to kiss his neck the same way he’d kissed hers.

“You can—” Poe gasped, his hand gentle on the back of her head. “Harder is fine, I don’t mind it, I don’t—” Rey sucked particularly viciously on the spot he’d indicated, and Poe made an odd, strangled noise that she shouldn’t have found as attractive as she did.

They tumbled out of the passageway a while later as students rushed down the hallways once more. Rey turned and headed towards her next class, but Poe caught her hand and tugged her back. Rey spun as though they were waltzing, and ended up in his arms, beet red while some student shouted encouraging remarks at the couple.

“One more?” Poe asked, his eyes soft and earnest. “If it’s okay with you, that is, you don’t have to –”

Rey kissed him lightly, with none of the passion they’d just demonstrated in private, but Poe grinned widely, his eyes sparkling, and she felt incredibly successful. That is, until her eyes caught on something very obvious. “Um,” she said, fairly certain at this point her blush was permanent. “You’ve got a – I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to—”

One of his hands drifted to the red spot on his neck that she was staring at, mortified, and he smirked at her. “Lioness,” Poe murmured, kissing her gently and releasing her. “Have a good rest of your day.”

“Mhm,” Rey squeaked, still embarrassed. Poe grinned at her, and she spun on her heel and fled down the corridor, well aware that his eyes followed her until she turned the corner.

***

Poe and Rey found it increasingly difficult to do things together that didn’t involve some kind of studying as Rey’s exams and Poe’s N.E.W.Ts approached. In the final weeks of May, they usually snuggled up in the library or outside in the warm sunshine, often accompanied by Rose and Finn, and quizzed each other. Sometimes, they just sat quietly and read notes side by side, but Rey mostly appreciated the calm confidence Poe always projected, particularly when it came to her own abilities.

Once, when she had a minor panic after forgetting the name of a hex referenced by Skywalker back in December, Poe took the flashcards out of her hands gently and set them aside. He framed her face in his hands and kissed her forehead delicately, and Rey sighed in contentment. “You’re the smartest person I know,” he reminded her, his thumbs stroking over her cheeks. “And you don’t have to do perfectly on this exam. You’re still going to blow everybody else out of the water.”

“But I might not,” Rey grumbled, her nerves frazzled by the constant stress of the last few days. “I might fail the exam, and then fail out of Hogwarts, and then –”

“During my Astronomy O.W.L., I dropped my telescope off the side of the tower,” Poe said serenely, talking over Rey’s anxious ramble. “And I just started naming random things for constellations. Pretty sure I named one ‘Frodo Baggins.’ The proctor was…not amused.”

“Did you still pass?” Rey asked, distracted from her worry for a moment.

“Nope,” Poe said cheerfully. “Absolutely bombed it. But no one kicked me out of school, and my dad got me a child’s planetarium for Christmas.” Rey laughed at the thought of Kes being such an arse, and she accepted Poe’s next kiss on the lips with her heart much calmer than before.

After a few moments of quiet, she said, “…Come on, Dameron, if anyone deserves a constellation, it’s Samwise.”

“I didn’t say I was smart,” Poe said, turning back to his Potions notes. Rey nudged his shoulder with her own, snuggling into his side, and when Finn and Rose joined them ten minutes later, she was able to set aside her flashcards and help Finn finish his Astronomy study guide.

As May faded into June and exam season started in earnest, Rey found herself more and more in love with Poe Dameron. No matter how stressed he was – and he rarely let it show that he was stressed – he always had time to help others. He brought Jess snacks in the library when he found out she’d been in there for over ten hours, helped Rose practice her Arithmancy for her practical, comforted a first year who’d completely messed up their Potions final, and always, always had time leftover to spend time with Rey.

He really was perfect, she realized, but not in the untouchable, priggish, irritating way she thought he was at the beginning of the year. No, Poe Dameron was perfect in a very real, very noble way, and she _loved_ him for it. And she wanted to tell him, but every time she opened her mouth to, a joke or a story would come out instead. And Poe would listen to her through all of it, the same wonderful, admiring smile on his face that he always had when she spoke, and he’d usually kiss her at the end of it (and Rey hoped that meant he understood what she really wanted to say).

Still, she should have known this period of barely complicated bliss was too good to last.

On Thursday morning, in the first week of June, the owls arrived at breakfast. Immediately, the Great Hall started buzzing. Rey was exhausted, having pulled an all-nighter in preparation for her DADA practical, and a little grumpy as Poe had skipped breakfast to assist Skywalker in setting up for it. She stabbed at her eggs, trying to clear her mind, when someone marched up to the table and demanded, angrily, “Did you know this?” She looked up, surprised, to see a fifth year Hufflepuff she’d barely ever spoken to (alright, so she’d only spoken to her when she’d caught Rey and Poe stumbling out of a closet last week) glaring at her furiously and clutching a copy of this morning’s _Daily Prophet._

“Know what?” Rey asked, swallowing her mouthful and frowning. The girl scoffed angrily.

“ _This._ ” She tossed the paper in front of Rey, and it splashed some of her juice out of the goblet. This got Finn’s attention, who’d been staring at his notes before.

She and Finn leaned in together to read the title, and Rey felt an icy chill pass through her.

 _Darth Vader Revealed to be None Other Than Anakin Skywalker, Father of Current Hogwarts Headmistress,_ the headline proclaimed.

Her stomach dropped out from underneath her, and she pinched her thigh under the table, praying that this was a bad dream, that this wasn’t actually happening.

“I knew you and Solo were close,” the girl said bitterly. “But if you had _any_ idea that this was true, and you didn’t _say_ anything? Then you’re no better than they are.”

Rey stood, angrily, the bench thrown back from how quickly she moved. “Ben has _nothing_ to do with his grandfather,” she snapped. “Even – even if this is true! People aren’t defined by their family.”

The girl shook her head, sneering, and Rey fought the urge to grab her by the robes and introduce her fist to her face. “You’re going to defend them? Vader killed thousands. He doesn’t deserve to go to this school if it’s true, and Organa doesn’t deserve to be headmistress.”

Rey jumped out from the bench entirely, and the girl screeched and dodged out of the way, and Rey went to chase after her, fuming.

“Whoa,” Finn warned, grabbing her around the middle and hauling her back. “It’s not worth it, Peanut.”

“Who told them?” Rey asked miserably, grabbing the paper and staring at it. Anakin Skywalker’s face laughed out from his picture, right next to a picture of the fearsome Darth Vader in his full mask and robes. Even after her realization over the winter holiday, Rey had tried her hardest not to think about it, praying that it wasn’t true, not wanting to upset Ben by bringing it up.

Ben.

Rey looked up at the surge of agony she felt from across the hall, and spied Ben sweeping for the doors. She hadn’t spoken to him since the Quidditch match – he hadn’t even tried to speak to her, and she had hoped it had more to do with his exams and nothing to do with her very public first kiss with Poe – but all the awkwardness of the last year fell away as her every instinct screamed at her to protect her friend. If a person she barely knew was willing to confront her over an assumed connection to the Skywalker family…

“Rey, wait!” Finn called after her as she sprinted to catch up with Ben.

It was too late – there was a large group of people gathered around him by the time she emerged from the Great Hall, and her friend looked panicked, angry, and miserable as people began to jeer at him. She fought her way through the crowd, trying desperately to get to Ben.

He had frozen when she reached him, and she desperately tugged on his hand. “Let’s get out of her,” she said desperately. “Come on, we can – we can go to the tower, or to your mother’s office—”

Ben stiffened, and Rey felt a recoiling disgust inside him. _Mother._ His mother had lied to him, had kept the truth from him, had hidden this from him and _why_? _Shame?_ Rey shook her head to clear Ben’s projected thoughts and emotions, the bond of their childhood roaring to life in the stress of it all.

“She probably didn’t want to hurt you,” Rey whispered, and she knew immediately it was the wrong thing to say. Ben stared at her in shock, and Rey stared up at him with an apology in her eyes.

“ _You knew_?” He whispered. No sound fell from his lips, but she felt the words all the same.

“Muggle killer!” Someone screamed, and it startled them both enough into looking away from each other.

“Leave him alone!” Rey shouted back. She tugged on Ben’s hand one last time. “Come on, let’s get out of here, _please._ ”

Finn had reached the edge of the crowd, and she saw his hand go to the wand at his hip – he was staring at someone past Rey, and she looked over her shoulder and saw more than one student with their wand drawn, leveled at Ben, and by extension, herself.

“No!” She shouted, flinging her arm out as if she could protect Ben from a dozen hexes at once. “No, it isn’t his fault!” Hux and Phasma appeared within her peripheral, but they didn’t look surprised or disgusted. Hux looked oddly…smug, even as he started shoving people out of the way, barking at people to look away and leave Ben alone.

Rey turned to Ben, and grabbed the front of his robes. “Let’s go,” she repeated urgently.

“Don’t touch me,” Ben snapped. “Just leave me alone.”

“No,” Rey whispered, her eyes wide. “You shouldn’t be alone.” She pushed the memory of herself at age eight, crying and alone under Obi’s porch after a hard day at school, the memory of Ben coming to find her and sitting with her, showing her small magic tricks until she wiped her eyes and smiled again.

“I _am_ alone,” Ben said.

“That isn’t true.” Rey tugged on his hand, and he ripped it away from her.

“Don’t touch me,” he snarled, and she froze at the cruel expression on his face. “How dare a Mudblood touch me?” Her entire world stopped moving for a painful moment, and Rey stared at him in shock, too distant from herself to feel much of anything. “Especially a weird, little homeless Mudblood.”

Half of the crowd had dispersed at this point, potentially due to an adult authority demanding it break up, but those in attendance gasped. Rey took a stumbling step back, waiting for Ben to apologize, for his expression to clear, for him to become _Ben_ again. It never came.

Instead, Finn charged forward, rolling his sleeves up. “Oh, that’s it,” he said. Rey continued to stand absolutely still as Finn slugged Ben in the stomach. The taller boy roared in anger, and the two began to brawl like Muggles, with their fists, in the middle of the front hall.

“What the hell is going on?” Poe Dameron arrived at the scene, his eyes wild and hair messy. His cheeks were red, and he was out of breath, as though he’d sprinted here. He must have, Rey realized distantly, the second someone told him a brawl was happening. “Stop it! Oi! You two! I said _stop it_!”

Poe blasted them apart using a Shield Charm, and Finn and Ben stood, panting and glaring at each other.

“What the hell happened?” Poe repeated angrily. He looked over at Rey, and his expression softened immediately. “What happened?” He asked her quietly, and she found herself unable to answer, her throat too thick with tears.

“Ben called her a – a—” Finn choked on the word, and shook his head, still furious. Something clicked behind Poe’s expression, the realization dawning on him. He stared at her, and she could tell he wanted her to say something, but she just…couldn’t. Not without crying.

“Is it true, Kenobi?” An unknown voice shouted from the crowd. “You’re homeless?” There were a couple nervous titters, and that was it. Rey burst into tears, her hand covering her mouth for a moment as though that could hide how distraught she was.

Poe blinked slowly in understanding, and said, “Oh. Okay,” very, very softly, nodding to himself while he turned towards Ben. And then, to the absolute shock of everyone gathered, he hauled back and punched Ben Solo in the face, an almighty crack echoing in the front hall when his fist made contact.

He fell with a howl, clutching his nose, and Rey’s crying slowed from the surprise of Poe’s action. “You’ll pay for that, Dameron,” he snarled, his hand going to his wand, revealing the blood trickling down his face.

“That’s enough!” Professor Organa stood at the foot of the staircase, and she glared at her son and her favorite student. “Trooper – Dameron – _Solo._ You three with me. _Now._ ”

Finn squeezed her arm reassuringly on his way past, and Ben stared at her for a long time before stumbling to his feet as well. She couldn’t know what was on his face, as she refused to meet his eyes. Poe walked to Organa last, after walking to Rey and stroking some hair out of her face. He kissed her forehead tenderly and whispered, “It’s going to be okay.” And then she was alone.

But not for long. Jessika Pava and Rose Tico appeared on either side of her, and ushered her away from the hall. They walked her through the front doors, and they didn’t stop until they cleared the courtyard.

“Your final is in three hours,” Jess said quietly. “Let it out, Kenobi.” And Rey cried in earnest, her heart broken, for Ben, for herself, for the trouble she’d gotten her friend and boyfriend into – she cried and cried, and Rose and Jess wrapped their arms around her as they sat on the lawn. In the distance, a single grey cloud drifted over the Forbidden Forest, the one disfiguration of the otherwise perfect June sky.

***

Her final that afternoon went as well as it could have. She didn’t miss a single spell or falter for a moment, some bizarre calmness settling over her when she stepped into Professor Skywalker’s classroom. Not a single student raised the question of his parenthood to his face, but Rey didn’t think she was imagining how tired he looked.

Finn arrived on time to the exam, and when she asked him what his punishment was, he just shrugged. There would be no punishment, apparently, Professor Organa deciding that points removed from the three houses would be enough. Rey learned later that Poe had tried to turn his Head Boy badge in after her disappointed lecture, something that had caused Organa to laugh for the first time that day.

So, Poe remained Head Boy, Finn stayed out of detention, and Ben…well, Rey didn’t like to think about Ben.

On Saturday morning, she found herself sitting at her favorite spot, looking out over the lake. Poe leaned against the tree, and she sat between his legs, her head resting on his chest. Their hands were clasped, and his lips were in her hair.

“This is nice,” Rey said softly. She needed nice. And good. And…she needed Poe. “Imagine if we’d been doing this all year.”

“Hmm,” Poe kissed the tip of her ear, and Rey smiled, tilting her head so she could squint at his face. “You mean if I hadn’t been such a coward and asked you out after Christmas?”

“You aren’t a coward,” Rey corrected him, frowning. “Besides, if I hadn’t almost died and scared you off—”

“Don’t say that.” She nodded and rubbed her nose into his chest apologetically. He kissed the top of her head. “But yeah. Hard to convince the girl you’re in love with that you want to date her when you’re too busy yelling at her.”

Rey laughed brightly. “It isn’t just on you, Dameron! I gave you a run for your money, how were you supposed to know—” Something he said slipped into place in her mind, and Rey sat up quickly, turning to stare at him. Poe was blushing, his eyes looking anywhere that wasn’t at her. “Hang on. What did you say?”

Poe sighed and winced. “I didn’t…I didn’t want to say it, I didn’t want to pressure you, I’m sorry—”

“Sorry because you think it’ll upset me, or sorry because you didn’t mean it?” Rey asked, trying to catch his eye. After what looked like great personal effort, Poe managed to look at her.

“Sorry because…because you have another year at Hogwarts,” Poe said softly, and Rey frowned at him. “Because I don’t want to pressure you into saying something you don’t mean, or make you feel uncomfortable. I don’t want to make you feel like you have to stay with me when I’ll be literally hundreds of miles away from you all next year, just because I’m an idiot who can’t keep his mouth shut, and—”

Rey held her hand out, and he stopped talking abruptly. “Say it again?” She asked shyly.

Poe smiled and looked down at the ground for a second before leaning in so that their noses were almost touching. “I’m in love with you.”

Her answering smile spread across her face faster than fiendfyre. “I’m in love with you too,” she said, and Poe’s eyes widened, making her laugh. “And I don’t care how far away you are from me, Poe Dameron. That won’t change how I feel about you.”

“Yeah?” Poe breathed. Rey nodded, and he kissed her with an impossible warmth, a hand coming to cup her cheek. A light breeze stirred the branches of the tree overhead, and Rey leaned into the kiss, draped over his chest, her legs tucked up underneath her as she kissed her boyfriend, who she loved, who loved her, with complete and total resistance to every awful thing the world had to offer her.

“Okay then,” he mumbled when they’d broken apart. He looked incredibly dazed, his cheeks pink, and smile bashful. “We’ll stay together?”

“For as long as you want me, Dameron,” Rey said, burying her actual fear in a bit of a joke.

“Don’t say that unless you mean it,” Poe warned softly, and Rey watched as his hand went to the ring around his neck. Her mind whirled at the implication, and her breath caught audibly –

“Oi! Lovebirds!” Finn and Rose walked towards them along the lake shore, a basket held between them, and Poe laughed softly at the same time Rey grumbled. “We brought you something!”

“You couldn’t have brought it later?” Rey hissed so that only Poe could hear. He kissed her cheek, still chuckling, and Rey settled back down into his embrace in a decidedly more appropriate manner.

“What’d you bring us?” Poe asked as their friends walked up and settled down next to them.

Rose beamed at him and opened up the basket. “Now, I know you would fuss,” Rose said warningly. “Which is why it’s a day early –”

Rey groaned as Rose lifted a chocolate cake out of the basket and held it out excitedly. Finn raised his wand, and seventeen candles sparked to life and shone merrily.

“It’s your birthday?” Poe asked, mystified. “You didn’t tell me!”

“I didn’t know when it was your birthday either,” Rey pointed out, smiling at him. “Besides, I was actually going to tell you later today. And – as Rose and Finn know,” she glared at them, and they looked distinctly unapologetic, “I hate celebrating my birthday.”

“Whatever,” Finn rolled his eyes. “I wanted an excuse to stress eat cake.”

“And you do like cake,” Rose argued, grinning as though she’d won. And she had won. Rey really, really liked cake.

They sang an incredibly off-tune rendition of “Happy Birthday” (well, Rose and Finn were off-tune, and Rey blushed at how absolutely beautifully Poe sang it, just another talent of his, she supposed), and then Rose and Finn cut some slices and passed them around. They giggled and talked for a while in the shade of Rey’s favorite tree, and her heart skipped a beat when Poe leaned in and whispered, “Happy Birthday, Sunshine,” in her ear, kissing right under the lobe with extreme delicacy.

Rose and Finn had been debating the virtues of chocolate over vanilla when Poe did so, and Rey was able to avoid merciless teasing over how hard she blushed. The four ended up eating the entire cake on a blissful Saturday afternoon, unafraid of the challenges that still lay ahead of them, and absolutely undeterred by the make-up studying they would have to do the following day as a result of their relaxation.

And while Rey missed one person in particular as she celebrated her birthday and the end of her sixth year, and while she worried at what the future might hold –  

She knew the next year wouldn’t be impossible, not with friends like these.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's that for "Rey Kenobi and the Rebellion's Awakening"
> 
> I already announced it on my tumblr (dracosollicitus.tumblr.com), but I'll do so here as well:
> 
> There will be a sequel to this fic: "Rey Kenobi and the Heir Apparent," which will take place roughly four years after this fic. (Edit: After reading some comments, I want make it clear - I’ve already written 30,000 words of the sequel...)
> 
> And, if y'all are interested, I might do a series of one shots that bridge the time gap between the two fics (in addition to the Poe POV fic that's ongoing, "Those Patient Hufflepuffs are True"
> 
>  
> 
> Anyway, thanks for reading <3 <3 <3 I hope you enjoyed it!

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!!


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